WHAT does it mean to be an editor? What is it about a piece of writing that engages us not only as readers, but also as editors? How is it that we can fall under the spell of a particular story so deeply that it feels as if time stops, the outside world falls away, and our senses are immersed on a level that is difficult to explain? What is that feeling, and how can we remain open to its mysteries? We both edit prose for Chestnut Review, a quarterly literary magazine that publishes poetry, art, fiction, and nonfiction, and late last year we decided to exchange letters to begin to answer these questions.
We both started as “first readers” before becoming prose editors in early 2022. Chestnut Review, founded…
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Poets & Writers (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2023