VQR and the Unsolicited Submission

After the Virginia Quarterly Review ran a series of blog entries that featured anonymous excerpts of submissions alongside  comments made by the magazine's readers, editor Ted Genoways offers an apology. While the blog posts were intended to communicate what's "inappropriate for VQR" while calling for the best writing possible, it seems lots of readers took the posts as belittling. I don't blame them. If I had a submission out to VQR right now, I'd be in frigid fear that it would be my anonymous excerpt that appeared on the website, complete with mocking comments by the reader and blogger alike.

At the same time that he makes the apology, Genoways holds on to VQR's contention that the  majority of the submissions they receive are ultimately lazy. And here's the part where, now that I've had something of an epiphany about taking a stance in fiction writing, I see it everywhere:

Writes Genoways:

However, I do think that the comments, if not their public airing, are a fair response to many of the submissions we receive and accurately reflect the righteous indignation that we often feel as readers. Too much of what we see these days strikes us as merely competent—well-crafted but passionless in its execution or, just as often, passionate only about the minor travails of the world of its author. No editor nor writer feels more strongly about the possibility of finding the universal in the small, but we also ravenously crave great writing that takes on big issues. Gutsy, fearless, hard-nosed writing. Writing that matters. Its absence makes us ill-tempered; it makes us question our enterprise. We work hard and want to see evidence of equal effort from writers.

Fair enough. While shaming passionless submissions on a public stage isn't the answer, Genoways is right on that too many would-be writers are satisfied with small pickings. Reach further, is what I'm hearing from him,  and how can that not be right?

While I get back to work on my stories, it looks like the VQR team is putting more thought in the matter; they're pounding out a "call to arms, our mini-manifesto," which they'll post soon. And the ever-awesome Ross White (who first tipped me to this) lays the matter, finally, to bed:

I don’t see what all the fuss is about since 99% of VQR submitters have never seen the magazine. Hell, 99% of all submitters anywhere have never read the magazine.

Comments

[Richard]

Probably more than 50% of submitters have never read *any* literary magazine.