The Saranac Review, a professional literary journal at Plattsburgh State was created in 2004 out of four writers’ vision to open a space for many diverse voices.
The journal features works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry writers from this region and various parts of the world, including Canada.
The publication over the past 12 years has published the works of many emerging and award-winning writers.
Professor and Executive Editor of The Saranac Review Jose Torres-Padilla said he’s happy that the journal has been published for this long.
“It’s a big deal publishing it for 12 years because sometimes journals like these don’t last five years,” Torres-Padilla said. “We’ve been really fortunate.”
Torres-Padilla said that it’s been a lot of work over the years but it’s worth it because what the journal means to the writing arts program.
“I’m very happy about it—i’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” Torres-Padilla said
The Saranac Review is a year-round publication Torres-Padilla said so that means him and others editors are reading as many pieces of work as they can.
“Right now we already have accepted around 17 poets for the 13th issue,” Torres-Padilla said. “So we would hope by the end of the semester—maybe January we got everything covered.”
Once the pieces of works are chosen, then the production process starts.
Torres-Padilla said they begin by laying out pages, then once the pages are set comes the task of proofreading.
“We go through different drafts,” Torres-Padilla said. “It goes through levels of sorts: Interns are the first layer of readers, The second layer might be volunteers and then it gets to the associate editors.”
Torres-Padilla said the journal is also a tool for students.
“One of the reasons why they have the journal is for students to be able to read manuscripts, learn how to critique pieces of literature and gain some experience,” Torres-Padilla said. “We get hundreds of submissions and the students along with us have to narrow it down to a select few.”
Torres-Padilla said the journal provides the opportunity for some writers to get their work published for the first time.
“This way they can publish their work and be able to show it to an audience,” Torres-Padilla said. “People can expect to read excellent pieces of work.”
Torres-Padilla said the journal has evolved over the years.
“Just the way it looks has changed, the size, the quality of paper, the content as well,” Torres-Padilla said. “We publish more writers now and we’ve gone green-friendly so the submission process is all electronic.”
Torres-Padilla said in celebration of the journal’s launch of its 12th issue there will be a party at the Strand Center for the Arts from 7- 9 p.m.
For the launch party, I wanted to make sure there’s an event for people in english, writing arts, communications and for those who are just interested in literature,” Torres-Padilla said. “We didn’t really have an event like this before so this is something they can go to, have a little bit of wine, delicious food and celebrate 12 years of the Saranac Review.”
Email David Luces at managingeditor@cardinalpointsonline.com
