Editor Note

By Molly Hill

September 2021
Issue 23

Dear Readers and Writers,

In case you’re new, thought we’d let you know how things work around here. We’re an online journal and welcome submissions (ages 13-22) via an email form on our site. We publish poetry, flash fiction, short stories, travel adventures, personal essays, movie reviews, art, and photography. Guidelines are on our website, and our submissions are always open.

Our response time used to be a couple of weeks, but now we run 6-8 (working on it!)— and some of you submitters will attest that it can be longer than that. Our submissions went WAY UP during Covid, and we’re pleased that we’ve had the chance to read so much good work.

In January of this year, we published our FIRST print anthology celebrating 5 years of online publication! There WILL be another print anthology, and this fall we’ll begin selecting and soliciting work for that.

Being grant funded means we are always hustling and hoping for donations, and applying for grants, — but also that we are lucky enough to pay our published writers, and student editors. Like many lit mags we have a set budget per issue, and once we max out said budget our issue “fills,” and we move all remaining submissions ahead into the queue to be considered for the next issue.

Every submission gets a response, and a yes or a no— but only if we have a correct email. High school and middle school students may want to use a home or parent email as school servers may block our responses. This doesn’t tend to happen with our college submitters.

Since selection of writing for publication is a subjective process, all subs are read by several editors. This may delay our response time a bit, but we feel it’s the best way to be the most objective about the work we receive. And you don’t have to have a long or even a short list of publication credits to send us your work. All levels of creative experience are welcome!

We receive more poetry than anything else— by far.

Payment has been steady for a while at $25 per published piece (we hope to increase this soon), and $75 for work that’s selected for cover art.

We’re based in the Minneapolis-St.Paul metro area, but happily read submissions from all over the world.

Hope that gives you all a sense of the scaffolding behind the stage; we’re here if you have questions: editorbluemarblereview@gmail.com

IUp next————>ISSUE 23!!

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor’s Note

By Molly Hill

Summer 2021
Editor’s Note:

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.
-Sam Keen

Dear Readers and Writers:

Out of respect for the fleeting nature of summer, here’s our easy to access and quick to read summer issue. Not to be missed—> the vibrant cover art Fruits of My Labor, from DC based artist Lydia Jung H. We’d call her an up-and- comer, except if you’ve seen her work on Instagram or elsewhere, you’ll know she’s already arrived.

Like the season, our summer issue is brief! Enjoy the poems and shorts, and if you’re a student writer between 13-22, maybe send us something of your own?

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor’s Note

By Molly Hill

June 2021
Issue 22

Dear Readers and Writers:

I’ve never been a fan of the word closure, — same goes for journey, or summative statements like my takeaway, all in all, or at the end of the day. Yet it’s hard to ignore the urge to reflect on what we’ve all been through over the past year. * While some might claim they’ve emerged from 2020 a bit more insightful, with a deeper sense of gratitude and compassion, it’s hard to experience that basket of virtues without also feeling the lingering pang of loss, the still simmering sense of anxiety, and more than a hint of bewilderment and apprehension about what comes next.

In the midst of this possible-post-Covid, mid-vax, no more mask wearing era — we present our June 2021 issue.

Remember pre-Covid summer movies? THAT feeling, — you and your friends in the air-conditioning with a tall tub of popcorn drenched in butter, a blue raspberry slushie, or the XL box of Milk Duds? In the dark hush of the multiplex, the outside world receded for a few luxurious hours as you fell into the thrall of the story. Lights dimmed. Curtains opened. And as you settled back in your seat you also kind of leaned forward eagerly awaiting what was to come.

This is our 22^nd issue, but that movie theater feeling is always what we’re going for. Anticipation and reward, the story with the surprise twist, the essay that punctures the way you used to think about something.

Pull us up on your phone from your hammock or Adirondack, — scroll and lean in. Escape.

Molly Hill
Editor

*Resisting the urge to provide closure, we instead offer comfort from some of our favorite philosophers: Calvin and Hobbes.

Editor’s Note

By Molly Hill

Editor’s Note
Issue 21
March 2021

Dear Readers and Writers:

One of the things we’ve learned from putting twenty-one issues of student writing online is that not only is there no end of good writing out there, but every single issue always feels like our favorite. And we’re sticking steadfastly to the platitude that reading someone else’s writing can’t help but change you. It might make you angry, or hopeful, or empathetic, or leave you with a wow, I had no idea (!) kind of feeling. Our sincere hope is that we’ve given you some great reading to pass the time while you wait in line for your vaccine. We can hope!

We’ll let you get to skimming this note and scrolling through the issue instead, which is always our priority. Hope you approach each brand-new issue as a choose your own adventure exercise. Sometimes you’ll feel like an escape, and head for the fiction section. Come back later to dive into the personal essays, or check out the humor, craft, skill, emotion and construction of these poems. It will be hard to choose a favorite, so we’ll leave you with some great lines below to get you started. The rest is up to you.

Spring is coming, we promise.

Molly Hill
Editor

Lending him my laptop was easy. Letting him lean on me for the rest of the year was not. (Loathing, Rita Chernikova)

Outside the glass the field is white, sprung with down. Turn to see myself in the glass but see Imogen instead. (Snowday, Crystal Peng)

There is a version of this story in which they do not erase you. There is a version of this story in which mom smiled and dad frowned and at the end of the day we still gather round the dinner table. (Sundays, Amy Wang)

“Stand up for the national anthem or get the hell out of here!” Trying to keep my composure, I kept my head down and closed my eyes. I could feel everyone staring at my team…..(Why I Kneel, ZiQing Kuang)

I became addicted to the feeling of feeling empty, addicted to the way I can’t sleep at night because of hunger pains, addicted to the comments friends and family make about me finally losing weight…. (The Fear of Consumption No Longer Consumes Me, Miles Ortiz)

We’d gone 100 days with protests…… And then the smoke from the wildfires came and Portland reluctantly paused. It smelled and looked like mother nature had tear-gassed everyone. (Letter from Mateo in Portland to Stella in Cleveland, Mateo Sifuentes)

Editor’s Note: Winter Poetry January 2021

By Molly Hill

Editor’s Note
Winter Poems/January 2021

Dear Readers and Writers:

This week twenty-two-year-old poet Amanda Gorman became the youngest person to read a poem at the inauguration, when she stepped up to the microphone with The Hill We Climb.

When day comes we ask ourselves
Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

We’ve always believed in the power of the written word as a means of connection, and a vehicle to discover our shared humanity. In our going-on six-years of online publication, we’ve showcased a few hundred poems from student writers who’ve impressed us with their ability to shape life experiences into art that is relatable, and meaningful.

…even as we grieved, we grew,
…even as we hurt, we hoped
…even as we tired, we tried

In our Winter Poetry Issue, we’ve selected poems about love, loyalty, Covid, identity, summer yearning, grammar, and polyester. As always, it’s a privilege to publish these students, and we’re delighted to do so in the same week that poetry shines on the inaugural stage.

Hope you’ll take the time to listen to Ms. Gorman’s incredible poem, and scroll through our most recent issue as well. Youth + creativity wins every time.

Happy New Year—

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor’s Note

By Molly Hill

Editor’s Note
December 2020
Issue 20

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent entrusted to you.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Dear Writers and Readers,

Welcoming you to our 20^th issue is only partially accurate. While we publish four full numbered issues (March, June, September, December) every year, we also sneak in two poetry-only shorter issues in January and July. Still it seems significant in some way that our 20^th issue pops up online at the end of 2020. A quick dive into numerology reveals that the number twenty is powerful and related to the characteristic of unlimited potential. While it’s difficult to explain a lot of things we’ve experienced as a whole in 2020, we do recognize potential and are always impressed with the singularity, power, and originality of the writing voices, and the creative artistic skill in the submissions we receive.

This is our largest issue to date, the most submissions we’ve received, and the largest volume of work we have published online. We’re grateful to all the student writers who submitted work, because while it was a pleasure to select the work for this issue, we also regret having to say no to a lot of good work due to the large volume of submissions.

As with every issue there’s something for every reader. A quick flight to space? Per Aspera Ad Astra, by Freddie Coffey. A poem with an unusual theme? Try— Break-up Letter to Eczema from Evy Shen. Unexpected funeral behavior? — check out Lou Goes to Vermont (Ida Mobini), and Samantha Liu’s Funeral Day.

Don’t miss the strong voices in our non-fiction section—Why Africans Don’t Talk about Race but Blacks Do, from Nigerian writer Idowu Odeyemi, and Natalie Parker’s take on the issues ‘inclusive’ media have with queer women, in Erasure and Fetishization. Our non-fiction essayists also take on travel abroad, loss and lies, what’s in a name, and Sweet Misgivings (Brianne O’ Gorman).

Enjoy the writing, admire the art, and keep sharing your creative work with the world.

Molly Hill
Editor