In our continued tradition of supporting and highlighting awesome, writer-friendly lit mags, it is our honor to introduce The Cincinnati Review! This journal is passionate, classy, and definitely a bit quirky! When asked what they would like to donate to a lucky winner, they told us they would only do so “if the drawing is truly random, i.e. certified 100% USDA random by someone with at least a masters in randomness.” And when asked if they would like to provide a discount, they informed us, “those who subscribe via the Lit Mag Spotlight will be individually and lengthily toasted by a select staff member at our next bi-fortnightly office bacchanal. However…this toasting will not be documented in any way,” and then proceeded to give you all a real discount as well (see below)!
CONTEST! Leave a comment by December 15 to enter this contest. TWO lucky winners will win a one-year subscription (two issues) to The Cincinnati Review AND a “handsome Thermos emblazoned with the CR logo.” U.S. residents only. This contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winners Katie D. and Gordon P. Thank you to all who participated!
DISCOUNT! Call The Cincinnati Review at 513-556-3954 and speak to a human (as opposed to ordering on their web-o-matic interface) or, even better, email them at editors@cincinnatireview.com, and they will send you a single copy for only $7 (regularly $9) and a one-year subscription for $12 (regularly $15). Offer valid until January 31st, 2012, and please keep in mind they are off for two weeks during the holidays!
We could not be happier to introduce to you, The Cincinnati Review!
1. Give us the lowdown on your journal’s mission.
It’s no different than any other journal’s mission: to take up long-term residence beside your commode.
2. Describe your ideal submission in 15 words or less.
Something you read helplessly in one sitting without picking up the red pen once.
3. Tell us about a piece you recently published that got the staff really excited. Why did you love it? Why did it strike a chord?
A piece that generated quite a stir as it made its way through the reader gauntlet was a story narrated by a talking gorilla. The idea alone delighted us, but the story itself surprised us with its persuasiveness and depth. We published it in issue 7.2 (Summer 2010): Brian Beglin’s “Something Ancient.”
4. Regarding submissions: What’s the most common turn-off that you encounter (in terms of craft)?
Stories that don’t have enough story and/or don’t get started until page five.
4. What’s the most common oversight (in terms of submission guidelines)?
People constantly ignore our request that they not submit orally.
5. Why is your journal awesome?
It is a friendly tome that will keep your commode company when you can’t be there to.
6. Where can readers find your submission guidelines?
Our website has our guidelines.
7. Why “The Cincinnati Review”? We know you’re based there, but couldn’t you think of a more evocative name?
If you knew what a weird, strange, beautifully-barnacled place Cincinnati was, you would not find the name unevocative.
Leave a comment by December 15th to enter the contest to win a FREE one-year subscription to The Cincinnati Review OR a handsome, emblazoned Thermos! Click LIKE and TWEET below to share this with your bookworm friends! This contest is now closed.
I like learning about the journal…but the key here for me is the thermos. What sort of thermos is it? A thermos says a lot about its organization… Are the thermoses filled? Are the lids included or do they cost extra? Also is this a real “Thermos” like a real “Kleenex” or is it a “thermos” with a little “t”? The questions are tantalizing!
What a delightful piece! I actually laughed out loud at the answers. I’m definitely gonna call a human at The Cincinnati Review and order a subscription! Thanks WR for this fantastic running feature, and thanks to the editors for not taking themselves too seriously!
I’m loving these contests! Enter me into it, please!
By the way, I love “People constantly ignoring our request not to submit orally.” So funny!
LOL! Well, since this contest is 100% USDA certified in randomness, I suppose it’s good enough for me!
The Cincinnati Review sounds like an awesome journal.
As a mom of 4,I’m never, not ever alone in the bathroom. Oh, how lonely our toilet must be when I leave. I’m sure it would love some company!
If only someone at the Cincinnati Review had a sense of humor! Then and only then would the idea of being toasted at a regularly-scheduled and compulsory-sounding bacchanal compel me to comment. That and a thermos. I’m a poor starving poet, but I’d love to read what you all have written.
As an Ohio native, I’d be proud to carry that thermos and thankful to receive a year’s worth of class/quirky stories.
On behalf of my lonely commode and my cold coffee, I sincerely hope this comment ultimately corrects both of those injustices in my life.
Oh, Randomness! Oh, Chaos! How you fill my life! I’d love an Ittanicnic (our family name for your dear city) Review to feed my soul and mind with some humor and wit. We even have indoor plumbing now at our cabin in the great forest where we live, so there is a place to put my copies.
happy to make the acquaintance of a friendly, quality journal. Would love one day to find one of my stories among the many enjoyed by your readers.
Good interview. I love passion, class and humor. Looked over your website and editors; Eclectic is my favorite word. 🙂 I just ordered a single issue to see what you’re all about. No, I didn’t call so you get to keep your two bucks but if I get the issue before Jan 31st deadline, and I like it, I’ll call to subscribe.
Thanks for the intro, Writer’s Relief. The Cincinnati Review sounds great.
I’ve been reading the Cincinnati Review for a while. Great journal, and their website is a gem of simplicity, artfully crafted.
Another journal (who shall remain nameless) specifically states “no talking animal stories” in its guidelines. Kind of makes me want to write a talking animal story. Kind of makes me want to read a journal that features talking animal stories.
I could use a Thermos. Thanks for making me laugh.
I just submitted a piece.
Love it! How fun! Count me in
I love Cincinnati. It is quirky and has some of the best hot dogs and ice cream (Graeters)in the country. The Cincinnati Review is just as good…
The whole Thermos thing reminds me of The Jerk (Steve Martin). Seems like these folks have a similar sense of humor. Best of luck CR and thanks WR for exposing them for what they are!
Cirque has the same problem with oral submissions. Writers just don’t believe we don’t want’em.
This is a fantastic interview! I loved the bit about the commode. 🙂
Anything free works for me.
Very entertaining!
Thanks for being The Cininnati Review. The name is evocative. For anyone with a sense of history, geography, the American past, it speaks volumes. One gets tired of journals with cute names. Keep being you!
All that – and I mispelled Cincinnati! Oh well – it’s late on a Friday night.
HA!! and yay me, for I knew the answer to your inquiry of their name before you even went there (i had a hunch you’d ask and when I scrolled down…); being from Cincinnati I vouch for them! Cincinnati it awesome therefore so must be CR! {Homesick much? Yes!}
Thank you for putting the spotlight on this fine literary journal.
This sounds like an amazing LitMag. Thanks for showing it to us!
Oh my gosh! A magazine with humans answering the phone, a magazine that likes a story told by a gorilla, a magazine that would feel at home by my commode and believes in genuine randomness–Thank you Ronnie and Writer’s Relief for introducing me to a dream come true.
I have not been so tickled since WKRP in Cincinatti.
Now wait a minute. . .is this Review actually published in Cincinnati? No matter, would love to enter this contest, So thanks!!
My dog writes humorous articles so he might fit in at CR. I’ll check out the submission guidelines for him.
This was a great interview and it went well with my morning coffee and Christmas tree lights. I will have to learn to spell Cincinnat…Cinincit…Cincinnati though. A journal after my own heart .. going to call for an issue.
I have spent my writing career submitting my stories and novels orally. I have submitted twelve stories and one 973 page novel. One of the advantages of submitting your manuscripts orally is the immediate results you receive. No more waiting months for a response from publishers. I have never received one of those generic rejections reading: “Not for us.” The editors have all been helpful with their in-depth feedback, using their best verbal skills to comment on my submissions, and have even taken time to give me detailed instructions on where I should submit my submission next. Try and get that kind of response from your typical magazine editor.
I realize this will drop me out of the running for winning a free subscription of The Cincinnati Review, but I have to be honest here.
At any rate, I have a new novel I’ll be reading to an editor this evening. I was able to obtain his home phone number from the operator. It’s important to be professional, so I will wait until after his dinner hour to call. After all, the novel is over 1500 pages.
I need some fresh bathroom reading material. Hope I win!
By the barnacles on my commode, in my astute randomness I swear never to orally submit nor leave your tome unopened.
WOW…as a laidoff writer, I have trouble explaining what I mean when I say I’m tired of being tired and sick of being jobless. I also find it difficult to find the perfect graphic/photo that exemplifies how I feel dried up and worn out after a long night out drinking with my boyfriend. Thanks to the CR’s 8.1 issue, I no longer have that problem. Alas, that creaky, dried-out, thirsty dinosaur on the cover of that 8.1 is exactly what I’ll refer to when I have a case of the cotton mouth syndrome frequently experienced by starving writers in my fair City of New York. It’s delightful. Poor dinosaur, I know just how it feels. Oh, and thanks for the teaser of a thermos. Perfectly ironic with said mention of thirst! HA! I sure hope I win. I’d love to wet my whistle with some good ol’ moonshine worthy of literary greats like Dylan Thomas et al. Happy holly days to you all!
Great interview. Would love to win a subscription!
Fresh… and a thermos too?
I’m from Cincinnati and I’ve never heard of the magazine. I’ll have to check it out.
People constantly ignoring your request to not submit orally? Do you object to them submitting cranially? I, in fact, do my best thinking next to the commode. To read a page in my life’s book, would probably take you five pages, as I had 22 hours of brain surgery at 15 years of age, had a son missing his corpus callosum, the mid part of the brain that connects the left and right hemispheres and grows into the fourth decade of life, as well as congenital adrenal hyperplasia – 21 hydroxalase, making him the only one, worldwide with both disorders (gasping for breath). At least, being in Cincinnati, you are not known by my parents’ label of the “mistake by the lake”, as Cleveland is referred to by them! . Nice overview, funny comments!
I am always disappointed when I see “U.S residents only”
There’s a big writerly world out there….if you want it to reach you, you have to extend yourself!
Thanks for the great article. … I hope I win!
Great interview! Love the randomness. The world needs more randomness. I know! Let’s make a list of all the random stuff in the world!
Anyone who uses “commode” in conversation is okay by me.