By Lauren Eggert-Crowe
Dr. Raina J. León is editor of The Acentos Review, a quarterly literary and arts journal that promotes and publishes Latinx work, and which has featured the work of several Women Who Submit members.
On their website, the review lets writers know, “The Acentos Review publishes poetry, fiction, memoir, interviews, translations, and artwork by emerging and established Latinx writers and artists four times a year. The LatinX community is international and so, too, do we pledge to represent that international community. We welcome submissions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, a combination of two languages, as well as the use of indigenous languages.
“The debate may rage forever as to who or what constitutes Latinx art. Here, there is no such identity crisis. We are already here, writing the histories of our neighborhoods, following the traditions of our ancestors, as well as the poetic traditions that came before us. To paraphrase Baldwin, the poet’s task as historian is to keep the story new, even when the telling is costly. This is the aesthetic we foster at Acentos. It is always about the word, the work, and it all begins here.”
Dr. León is passionate and exuberant about her work as an editor and educator. I asked her some questions about her work at The Acentos Review.
For a special bonus, Dr. León made a youtube video of her answers to these questions! We present to you the first Video Interview of Behind The Editor’s Desk!
As editor of The Acentos Review, what are you looking for in great submissions? What makes a submission stand out?
Our mission is to support the work of Latinx artists and writers, so, of course, first we are looking for work by artists and writers within this community. We ask folx to speak about their cultural identities (as separate from or in connection to their artistic work) because of this commitment to the community.
When considering a work for acceptance, I ask myself a few questions:
- Has the author/artist followed the submission guidelines?
- How do I respond to this piece? Am I so captivated that I want to return to it over and over again to study lines or intricacies in the artistry? In other words, how does the creator show that that this is their best work, one that transforms the reader/viewer through the process of engaging with the piece?
- How does this piece reinvent a form? How does the piece invite one into a depth of wonder?
If a writer submits a piece that is great but not quite there, how do you encourage them to re-submit? Do you offer feedback? Do you see a lot of re-submission?
For years, I used to do personal rejections with notes of encouragement on every piece. We are now too big for that to be sustainable, though I still miss that process. If a piece was very close to being accepted, I do send an editor’s note about resubmitting. If it is someone who has received a note from me before, I will write a follow up to say that I really do want to see new work and that it’s not just a form letter that I send out. I’ve had folx send different pieces four or five times before getting one accepted; I try to build community through the acceptance (and rejection) process. I would say, of those that receive my invitations to submit new work, about 40-50% try again.
The Acentos review is about centering Latinx voices, and we’re in a time of acutely racist policies towards Latinx people right now (not that this is new, of course). What have the volume and voice of submissions been like in the years since the 2016 election campaign began?
Over the almost 10 year history of The Acentos Review, the submission pool has gotten larger and larger. When we first started, we might get 30 submissions for a cycle. Now, it’s 100-150 per issue that are reviewed and that’s been the case for about the last 3 years or so. So the pool has definitely grown. This might also be in response to organizations like Letras Latinas, CantoMundo, Macondo, Cave Canem, Kundiman, VONA, and other organizations that have grown to highlight the work of writers of color. Because I have been connected to many of those organizations, The Acentos Review has also benefited from those relationships.
You’re an editor, a professor at St. Mary’s college, and you are involved in high school engagement with poetry as well as “critical literacy in the high school classroom.” What do you see with the younger generations that gives you hope? How are they engaging with literature and poetry? In these uncertain times, what excites you, or, does anything trouble you?
I see with youth a tender fearlessness, a vulnerability and a hyperawareness of the ills of the past, which threaten to toxify their lives. I see resistance and resilience in youth that are absolutely inspiring. This comes through a deeper and more active political and social engagement brought to life through their arts. What excites me is their innovations through technology and the power of image and word. What troubles me is when they are manipulated by what they consume rather than being inspired themselves to be critical of what they consume and proactive in creating counternarratives.
The next Acentos Review issue will be published on May 15th. What are you most proud of about this current issue? How does it showcase the strength of your writers?
First, part of the issue is guest edited by the brilliant and daring Yesenia Montilla. It’s called Wild Imaginings, Powerful Queer Voices, and it will be our first guest edited issue devoted to the queer Latinx community. It will also be the last issue from which I will pull submissions for the 10th anniversary anthology. In an issue that has a guest editor, there’s still at least 30% of the issue devoted to general submissions, so an issue like this has such powerful potential for juxtapositions that sing.
Dr. Raina J. León, Cave Canem graduate fellow (2006) and member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, CantoMundo and Macondo, has been published over 50 publications in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and academic scholarship. Her first collection of poetry, Canticle of Idols (2008), was a finalist for both the Cave Canem First Book Poetry Prize (2005) and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize (2006). Her second book, Boogeyman Dawn (2013), was a finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Prize (2010). Her third book, sombra: dis(locate) was released February 2016, Salmon Poetry. Her first chapbook, profeta without refuge, was released in September 2016 through Nomadic Press.
She has received fellowships and residencies with Macondo, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Montana Artists Refuge, the Macdowell Colony, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Annamaghkerrig, Ireland and Ragdale.
She is currently an associate professor of education in the Kalmanovitz School of Education at St. Mary’s College of California. She came to Saint Mary’s from the Department of Defense Education Activity, where for three years she taught military dependents in Bamberg, Germany.