pea river journal

When the work started to arrive via Submittable in the summer of 2014, we could not resist reading through the poems and stories as they accumulated. So the work, those characters and situations and metaphors and emotions, started to assume a shape. The tumble of home-related burdens at the center of each piece became our burden. We brought our best editorial eye to the work, studying style and development and form. But it was our best emotional eye, the burdens we brought to these submitted burdens, that formed our initial choices. The first cluster of accepted pieces — including a clot of work from Robert Fanning — became the center, the emotional center, of the issue. And the rest of the submissions were read with a split lens: one side trained on our own standard for technical quality, and the other side equally well-trained for raw emotion. Did the piece work? Were the images silty and the language fresh? And did our hearts fall into the work?

We wanted beauty. And we wanted damage. And dozens of artists created work that delivered both. And we are grateful.

Now they say it’s a new year. Another new call, then a reading window, then another issue, is ahead of us. And just know, whether you’re a writer or artist or reader, we remain dedicated to the split lens. We can hardly wait to continue reading and sharing.

Thank you for being part of our discovery.