Editor Note

Spring 2025
Issue 37

Dear Readers and Writers:

…the times they are a changin’… as Bob Dylan wrote in one of his songs, —finally something we can all agree on. Now if we could only figure out what to DO in the midst of so much change.

Maybe read some stories?

Since our website first came online nearly ten years ago we’ve proudly been collectors of creative work, and when we check the submission queue every morning we’re delighted, impressed, surprised, moved… but never disappointed. The student work we receive not only reflects life fron the point of view of students 13-22 years old, but also mirrors the culture in the wider world. It’s a pleasure to read writing and appreciate art from the thrivers as well as the survivors, and our current issue is no exception.

Some highlights:

>We’re pleased to publish poems from student writers Juan Cruz and Luke Ross, both students at Port of Los Angeles High School, a school that sends us so much student writing on a regular basis— thank you POLAHS staff!

>This issue includes writing from Moseka Nityia who describes himself as:  a proud Maasai, a patriotic Kenyan, and a true Pan-Africanist with a global outlook. A passionate writer and poet, his work beautifully weaves together themes of humanness, justice, and African identity, capturing the rich and complex realities of life in a developing world. Check out his powerful writing in the poetry section: Two Times Dumb, Never

>We’re fortunate to have artwork from the talented Mike Wheeler—> a fine-art photographer from Ilorin, Nigeria, whose work explores identity, cultural reflection, and the human experience. Such a privilege to share work from our contributors all over the globe.

>From the North Carolina School of the Arts, Chaeeun Yoo sent a thoughtful reflection on Toni Morrison’s Sula, that’s included in our Book Review section.

>To see an example of a poem we loved on the first read through, go to Harvard student Anna Popnikolova’s Water Theorem. Same goes for the lovely Faces of the Swan, submitted by Sophia Campbell.

> Writer Nicole Hirt is an example of a contributor whose work we’ll publish more than once. She has a flash fiction story in our March issue (Caroline Liddell) and will have another flash story (All that Glitters) in our June online issue.

>Personal essays are among our favorites to read, and our Spring Issue includes Henry Bourtin’s experience on a dinosaur dig in Chasing Bones, as well as a piece from Swiss teenager Emilia Lun, who shared her story of climbing Kiliminjaro at age FIFTEEN.

Spending a lot of time scrolling are we? Pennsylvania writer James DeGraaf reflects on an alternative in Go Stare at a Wall.

>In our fiction section Californian Paddy Dwyer sent us the entertaining Almost Surfing, Malaysian medical student Chloe Lim gave us The Memory Store, Netherlands writer Zanchao Hao penned Different Moons, Different Skies, and Korean author Jiyoo Choi added a well crafted story— Eight Summers Ago.

 We’ve tried and we can’t pick favorites.

Things to note:

We’re grateful to be continually flooded with submissions, and apologetic that it can take up to two months for us to reply. Working on this.

We’ve taken on a few new editors (welcome!) from the Minnetonka Writing Center here in Minnesota to help with the increasing workload, and continue to rely on our steady cadre of regular reviewers— some who have been with us nearly ten years.

Sumy Designs continues to save us from ourselves by maintaining our website faithfully, enabling fresh writing to go up on our site on a regular basis.

We continue to recommend stories as a means of connection, empathy, and a way to relate to others in a time of so much upheaval and change.

Enjoy our current issue, and watch for our ANTHOLOGY VOLUME TWO coming in real life book form this spring! It’ll be available on our site and pretty much everywhere, details to come on our Instagram.

Molly Hill
www.bluemarblereview.com

 

Dear Readers and Writers-
Here we are already at the end of another year of reading, reviewing, and publishing. If you’ve come by our website lately, you’ll see that we’ve temporary closed submissions,— hoping this gives us a chance to catch up on our backlog as well as make some steady progress on BOOK #2 — our coming-in-2024 Anthology of Student Writing, published in collaboration with Wise Ink Press.

Issue 32 is swarming with creative writing along with our rapidly expanding ART section. As our submissions increase we try to respond by adding a few more pieces to each issue. Still we end up turning down lots of good stuff simply due to the volume of work we receive. But also this is good (!) news because that means so many students are WRITING.

We’ve said this before- but we always encourage simultaneous submissions, and hope that all our student submitters are sending work to many places, to increase their odds of publication.

Submissions will reopen FEBRUARY 1, 2024. Keep us in mind! – we’ll be ready to read.

Enjoy the issue—
Molly Hill
Editor

December 2023
Issue 32

Dear Readers and Writers:

Somehow we’ve arrived at the end of a full year of reading, reviewing and publishing. If you’ve stopped by our site recently you’ll see that we’ve closed submissions temporarily. This gives us time to catch up on the backlog, as well as move forward with production of our coming -in- 2024 Anthology Volume 2.

Issue 32 holds a swarm of good writing in addition to loads of creativity in our ever expanding ART section. We love the work in this issue, —and feel the same about so much of the creativity we’ve had to turn down. Luckily there are many lit journals, and lots of opportunities for student writers both online and in print. We’re grateful you’ve stopped here, and in the spirit of freudenfreude* we hope you’ll take time to share what you’ve read and enjoyed here.

Submissions will reopen FEBRUARY 1^st, 2024. We’ll be ready to READ.

Happy holidays and enjoy the issue.

 

Molly Hill
Editor

 

 

 

 

 

*freudenfreude: finding pleasure in another person’s good fortune

Issue 30
June 2023
Editor’s Note:

No writing is a waste of time— no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good.
Brenda Ueland- If You Want to Write

 

 Dear Readers and Writers,

Welcome to our June Issue — Issue 30! Not sure we imagined this way back in 2015 when we first started brainstorming the idea of creating an online journal just for student writing. And we’re in great company— there are many other lit mags for students both online and in print,some backed by academic institutions, and many that are both created and run by student volunteers. We’re in favor of sending your creative work to MANY places, to increase your chances of being published. Some great resources:

www.newpages.com/young-writers-guide/young-writers-guide-to-publication/
www.duotrope.com
www.pw.org

When we started Blue Marble Review, we pictured this online space as a repository for creative work that would both showcase and inspire student creatives. In our eight years online we’ve seen the way creativity mirrors and speaks to cultural change. Students still write about family, school, sports, graduation, college, jobs, love, hobbies… but all of these themes are colored by where we’ve been (covid, isolation,) and what’s up ahead— environmental changes, inequality, political change, inflation…. Wait — also HOPE.

Writing has always been about connection, and whether a piece seems relatable or leaves you feeling riled, well maybe both are okay.

 

Enjoy the issue.
Molly Hill
Editor

Spring 2023
Issue 29

Dear Readers and Writers:

Eight years ago we first constructed our website (thank you Sumy Designs!) and then we waited. The first submission that appeared in the inbox was a poem from a young writer in Indiana. Although we’ve received countless stories, essays, book reviews, photography, and travelogues since then, our poetry submissions outnumber all the others by about three to one.

It could be that British poet W.H. Auden was onto something when he said:

Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.

 And while we’ve received poetry in many formats— sonnets, haikus, odes, and ghazals, we’re just as glad to see students abandon official structures, and explore their own creative forms.

The poems in our spring issue are all over the board, which is just how we like it.

Northwestern University student Maddie Kerr starts off her poem into congruence, with hair clippers in hand ‘buzzing a lullaby.’

Ivi Hua describes herself as an Asian-American writer/dreamer/ poet, and muses about life in  all the things I tell myself.

 The opening lines of Potential Potion for a Wildlife Brew (Peas in a pod are accustomed to company, but I am not) find writer Kamilah Valentin Diaz pondering a major life decision.

In our nonfiction section Addeline Struble uses poetic and poignant language to hold a lost sister close in past, present, future.

And in answer to the perennial question — do we ever publish the same students more than once? Yes— see The Physician from the prolific and talented Nigerian writer/poet Samuel Adeyemi.

When we accepted Pantoum for the Departed from A.R. Arthur he wrote in an email— “hey, thanks for homing my poem!” Which reminded us again of our main mission—to discover and bring all these gems of student writing first HOME to our site, and then out into the wide world.

Enjoy the spring issue!

 

Molly Hill
Editor