by Lauren Eggert-Crowe
For the past year and a half, I’ve been interviewing badass women editors for this blog, asking about what they love about their jobs, what they’re looking for in submissions, and how they balance writing and editing. Today I’m going to talk about MY job as editor!
In April of 2016, I signed on as the Reviews Editor at Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments. I’d known about Terrain for ten years, having gone to grad school with editor in chief Simmons Buntin. I’d long admired Simmons as an editor and a friend, so when we caught up at AWP Los Angeles and he asked if I’d like to be part of the Terrain team, I jumped at the chance!
So, what is Terrain and what do we publish?
Terrain publishes poetry, fiction, essays, in-depth articles, interviews, and reviews. And what does “the built and natural environments” mean? It means anything related to ecosystems both biological and cultural: ecology, climate change, landscape, animals, biology, cityscapes, city culture, architecture, urban planning/design/culture/activism, wilderness theory, environmental activism, meditations on place, nature writing, etc.
As Reviews Editor, I’m looking for reviews of books that give us new perspective on the environments around us, the cities we build, the climate we’re altering. I want to publish reviews of books that go beyond the tired trope of white people wandering through the woods and having serene thoughts. I want to publish reviews of books that amplify the visibility of marginalized communities in wild spaces and life sciences. I particularly seek out books that examine the intersections of nature, race, class and/or gender.
Here are a few reviews we’ve published in the last year that I particularly like:
Los Angeles may be ugly, but it’s ours, by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo
Xochitl wrote this review of LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas, a collection of essays about the landscape, history, and culture of Los Angeles
Building Fires in the Snow, by Erica Watson
Erica wrote this review of Building Fires In The Snow, an anthology of Alaskan fiction and poetry by LGBTQ writers.
The Inland Empire in Photos and Essays, by Erin Michaela Sweeney
This is a gorgeous book of photography and essays by Lewis deSoto, detailing his life growing up in The Inland Empire.
And we have other amazing reviews coming up as well. Right now, I am particularly looking for fiction reviews, as we have covered a lot of poetry and nonfiction lately. But I am open to any and all genres.
If you’re interested in writing book reviews but you never have before, that’s okay! I can help you through the process.
The VIDA Count numbers remind us of the importance of not just publishing women’s writing, but reviewing women’s books. So submit some pitches to Terrain!
Hi Lauren,
I’m a big fan of Terrain.org and a member of the WWS Long Beach group and would love to contribute a review. Here’s a link to a review of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “The Refugees” I contributed to Four Ties Literary Review. And a Goodreads review of Don DeLillo’s “Zero K .”
I read a lot and write a lot and enjoy reviews that expand beyond the book to the larger world and its issues. Here are a few possibilities:
1) Where Honeybees Thrive : This is a recently released CNF collection about the plight of bees by beekeeper Heather Swan. I’ve read a lot about colony collapse disorder and am involved with the local urban agriculture and beekeeping community, so have a big interest in what’s being done to save honeybees.
2) Ivy Pochoda’s new novel, Wonder Valley : The plot centers around LA people venturing into the desert to be part of a commune. I could imagine a geographical review and a reflection on desert utopias, and an attempt to set Wonder Valley within the tradition of other LA novels.
2) A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California : This book opened my mind like no other since Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Sixth Extinction.” Historical ecologist and artist Laura Cunningham combines words and drawings to describe how the California landscape has changed over the past few centuries. How 2-ton grizzlies roamed the San Bernardino Mountains, how gold miners changed the course of rivers, how the state looked before it was civilized. The book was published in 2010, however. But possibly a review could be made current by grouping together a few books about how landscapes change. Or perhaps interviewing the author.
If any of these sound like possibilities, let me know. I’m a former journalist, so understand deadlines, word counts, and editing. If you’d like to check out some of my other writing, visit margomccall.com.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Margo McCall (212) 562-3638
On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 7:04 AM, Women Who Submit wrote:
> womenwhosubmitlit posted: “by Lauren Eggert-Crowe For the past year and a > half, I’ve been interviewing badass women editors for this blog, asking > about what they love about their jobs, what they’re looking for in > submissions, and how they balance writing and editing. Today I’m goi” >
Thanks for this, Lauren. ? ❤