Hey Readers!
We appreciate your patience as our editorial team works on preparing the upcoming issue and working with writers to finalize their pieces. For this week’s Newsletter, we are going to include some new sections. First, Roxy McMackin will share their thoughts on the editing process. We also have an excerpt from a fiction piece, to give you an example of the kind of work that will be featured in our upcoming issue. Finally, we have two editor spotlights this week– Sydney Rousseau and Tiana Gregg.
All the best
Will Mathis, Newsletter Editor
Reflections on editing– Roxy McMackin:
I love the editing process! Usually for me it starts with reading the piece once to understand it, and a second time to look for anything that could be improved. The main thing is to identify what the author is trying to accomplish and what might need to be changed to help achieve that better – It’s important that I don’t try to make it what I would want out of the piece and instead improve on what I’m already seeing. I find it really exciting to work with a vision and objective that isn’t something I would come up with myself. Usually I start with overarching criticisms – narrative for fiction pieces, structure for essays/reviews, anything large in terms of the arrangement/inclusion of ideas that might have to be changed. Then I look at small format issues, such as word choice and grammar problems. Then I tell the writer an overall summary of what I thought of the piece and outline what might need to be changed! It’s super fun to be able to cooperate with a talented writer and we have a ton of those in this upcoming issue, so get hyped!
Excerpt-
Leaves of Grass
By Anissa Kahana
“Instead, the grass gives way, gentle as forgiveness, and everything she’s held comes undone. Clouds scatter into her favorite animals, a horse, rabbit, dragon, but all of them vanish before she can give each their own names. She laughs at their leaving, calling them her friends, but the laugh shatters, and suddenly she is crying; not from sorrow, nor from joy, though maybe both, pressed together like old flowers in a book until they are the same.”
Editor Spotlight
Sydney Rousseau
Hi everyone! My name is Sydney (she/her) and I’m from Dublin, New Hampshire. I’m currently a senior in Gallatin, studying creative writing, literature, and interior design. I’m also one of The Greene Street Review’s senior editors! My current obsession is a lamp my grandma just gave me. She found it at an antique store, and it has a crazy ornate base with a beautiful glass orb shade that has hand-painted flowers on it. I stare at it all day and all night; it simply awes me.
Literary Recommendation: Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Tiana Gregg
Hi! I’m Tiana Gregg and I’m from Connecticut. My pronouns are she/her and I’m the website manager for the Greene Street Review. I’m a senior who’s an English major on the Creative Writing track and I’m also an Art History minor. I’m enjoying the rest of my time living in NY to the fullest so you can usually find me at museums, parks, and restaurants all over the city.
My current obsession: I’ve been loving autumn Tiktok recipes. So far I’ve made pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls, pumpkin spice pull apart bread, pumpkin spice pancakes, pumpkin spice french toast…the list goes on.
Literary Recommendation: BookOff on 49 W 45th Street is huge, and has so many different floors with books, CDs/vinyls, and DVDs for such good prices. They even have some book series that are rare/out of print. I stop by whenever I’m in the area!