Editor Note

By Molly Hill

September 2023
Issue 31

Dear Readers and Writers:
Our Fall 2023 edition is the largest issue we’ve ever published. When we first started out back in 2015, we published quarterly (March, June, September, December) and then as time passed, added poetry supplements in January, July, and last year in November. All of this was done in response to our steadily increasing submissions, and our attempt to publish more student writing.

Since we’re an online journal we theoretically could just keep making our issues larger and larger: but we’ve got this budget.

From our very first issue, we’ve paid all our published writers, then added student editors, and paid them a stipend as well. Luckily we’ve got great grant support, but it’s not unlimited,— so each one our online editions usually includes close to 30ish pieces of creative work, chosen from the hundreds (!) of submissions we receive.

This time around there was so much ART that was hard to say no to. A couple of good book reviews. Lots of skillfully written stories, great poems, and on point personal essays. We added as much as we could, but still ended up saying no to all kinds of outstanding publishable work.

We always encourage every student author to submit their work widely, to increase their chances of acceptance, and we let them know that if we turn down a submission, chances are it’s because we don’t have the room (budget) for it, and not a reflection on the quality of the work itself.

Our submissions have been closed for a couple of months, but they’ll reopen September 1-December 1, as we welcome back our student writers and editors for another school year.

Thanks for staying with us for eight years! Keep writing and reading, and enjoy the issue.

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

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

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

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

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

Winter Poems
February 2023

Dear Readers and Writers,

An Editor’s Note is kind of like the warm up band at a concert. You may be willing to see it through, but you really came for the main event. And here it is:

This issue is smart phone and laptop ready and just about poetry only, with the exception of two incredible art selections from Ina Yoonseo Lee, and Grace Zhang. There are poems here about dreams, anxiety, leaving, birds, fire, foliage, and even a special homage to ‘thick-skulled annoyances.’ In other words, something for everyone. Read on and thanks for starting another year with us.

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

December 2022
Issue 28

-For My Children-
What does the world require of you?
Nothing.
So find in yourself what you require
and go.
—Kate Baer

Dear Readers and Writers:
We’ve written our way to Issue 28 and proudly present(!) writing and art perfectly suited for snow days and waiting-for-the solstice nights. This year we’ve published three (Jan, July Nov) lite, online poetry supplements and wrap up 2022 with our last FULL issue. It goes without saying that we recommend it ALL.

When you finish the poems, stories, essays, and art— here are some other suggestions for waiting out these short days and long nights:

Kate Baer’s new book of poetry And Yet. See above poem, but go ahead and purchase/read/peruse anything else she’s written.
courtneymaum.com/subscribe— a newsletter of publishing tips for those that aspire…
Smartwool
@talkwithzach on Instagram. Mental health/youth focused, spot on.
Rhodia notebooks
Hot Cocoa almonds from Trader Joe’s
The Tattoo Edition of Sleet Magazine: sleetmagazine.com
Lovely art on Insta: @lydia.jung.h
Litmags!——> lumierereview.com and icelollyreview.com
newpages.com/young-writers-guide/

Let us know your recs, and don’t despair. More LIGHT on the way.

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

November Poems 2022
Editor’s Note:

Dear Readers and Writers:

Because our submission numbers are so much larger than the amount of writing we are able to publish, we’ve added a November Poetry issue this year to showcase more good work from our student writers. We still end up turning down more work than we accept and students often email to ask us what type of writing we’re looking for. The best answer is to read the type of work we’ve already published.

Regarding poetry, certainly we’re open to a variety of forms, and publish haiku, odes, elegies, ghazals, sonnets, prose poems etc. But we also welcome hybrid and unconventional forms as well. In our FALL submissions queue this year, there was a LOT to like. And while it feels like the writing gets stronger, the longer we publish, this is just a small sample —a bit of the ‘best of’ our FALL reading.

In this issue—

Cameroonian writer Hyla Etame writes about longing in Love Letter to My Fatherland. And in Beautiful Marigold, high school student Mustafa Dost shows how an unconventional style can really work— this is not a typical ‘flower poem.’

Kevin Song successfully builds beautiful lines into strong stanzas in Triggers and Disappointment, while Quinn Murphy confides a very relatable worry in A Seething Fear.

In Wheel of Fortune (X), Filipino poet Rigel Portales manages to combine in a short poem—cobras, dice, Twilight, and heart surgery— with excellent results.

Isabel Isaac creates a beautiful, intimate scene in kitchen light, and Haze Fry explores the state of the world in her poem Sixteen.

Sandra Lin covers culture clash in ESTRANGED and wow, — Arim Lee shows off some skill weaving memory and image in k-summer.

Amelia Glass’ reflective voice begins with one bed:empty, in her poem thinking on the meaning of the word ‘gone.’

Something for everyone here. Please send more.

Molly Hill
Editor