34.1

I knew there was trouble when Chris, The Florida Review’s newly appointed assistant editor, showed up at my office door with a handbag. A very funky one at that, hand-woven, earth colors. But it didn’t match his black Converse All Stars. Plus, he wasn’t the handbag carrying-type. (In terms of style, he’s more Buddy Holly than metrosexual.) Chris stood in the doorway, silent. It took a few seconds before I recognized that bag as mine. Left upstairs in The Florida Review office on a frantic day of deadlines and editorial meetings for this summer issue. It was that kind of week.

There are many weeks like that in producing a journal, especially with a rookie staff, with just one issue under our belts as this summer issue goes to press. We’re learning the intricacies of managing the slush pile, designing each issue, and dealing with printers—except for Chris, who’s been on board for three years. This year, he has supplied continuity in everything from subscription and contest logs to memberships (CLMP, NewPages), to editorial policy. That’s where we get into most of our arguments.

“You two are funny,” the managing editor has said on more than one occasion when Chris has left mid-discussion to hop on his motorcycle and beat rush hour traffic on chaotic six-lane University Boulevard. Chris is ethical to a fault. If an editorial assistant has logged in hundreds of editor award entries, Chris doesn’t even want that person screening for finalists. (Conceivably, there could be a glimmer of memory that would mean the judging wasn’t a hundred percent blind.) If an issue with award winners is going to press, letters announcing results to all entrants had better be in the mail.

We’ve argued up and down about the ethics of inviting writers to submit non-contest work.Read on...

Eamon Grennan is an Irish citizen, born and raised in Dublin. He attended University College, Dublin, and came to the United States in 1964 to study at Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. He taught at Vassar College from 1974 until his retirement in 2004, returning to Ireland in the summers and when on leaves from teaching.

His books of poetry include What Light There Is & Other Poems, Twelve Poems, As If It Matters, So It Goes, Relations: New & Selected Poems, Still Life with Waterfall, The Quick of It, and Matter of Fact. He has also published a collection of essays on Twentieth century Irish poetry, Facing the Music, and two books of translations: Leopardi: Selected Poems and (with Rachel Kitzinger) Oedipus at Colonus. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and Still Life with Waterfall received the 2003 Lenore Marshall Award from the Academy of American Poets.

Don Stap spoke with Eamon Grennan at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida on the morning of October 20, 2008. Read the interview.