“I am so happy—receiving a flood of good poems!”
“Some fine nonfiction submissions coming in. Need more space.”
“I love the voice of this narrator, the rhythms of the sentences, her fine feel for the structure of a story.”How lucky I feel to have embraced this opportunity—to help an established literary review of six years continue to thrive, in collaboration with a team of experienced writers eager to try new approaches. Thank you former editors for handing us this gift, and thank you Writers Alliance of Gainesville for supporting our vision and providing financial backing.
While we no doubt worried a few people with our changes, the new editorial board wanted to refresh Bacopa’s image in the eyes of the writing public. For example, Bacopa’s 2016 cover was the winning design from a cover art contest. The abstract Bacopa flower concept symbolizes our challenge to poets and writers for contemporary as well as traditional work. We shortened the submission period, eliminated fees, and committed to responding to all submissions within three months. In addition to the usual ads, we expanded our presence through social media, bumping up Bacopa’s Twitter account, adding a Facebook page, and posting frequently on our new Editors’ Blog—to promote contributors and demonstrate the quality of writing we seek.
We invited and, happily, received poetry that turns our world upside down, nonfiction that makes us laugh or cry, fiction that evokes Virginia Wolff, Vladimir Nabokov, Flannery O’Connor. Chosen from almost 1500 submissions, our 60 contributors across genres will transform the way you view the world. Their inspirations range from an ancient Persian stew to Chekhov to present-day piercings. The variety of work is as classical as the centuries-old haiku, as experimental as a bedroom that grows, as lyrical as the Joycean rush of a memoir in 1/60th-of-a-second sentence fragments.
Please join us in our adventure: Bacopa Literary Review 2016!
Mary Bast, Editor in Chief
Susie Baxter, Associate Editor
Mary Bridgman, Managing Editor
Kaye Linden, Poetry Editor
U.R. Bowie, Fiction Editor
Rick Sapp, Creative Nonfiction Editor
