Nestled in the corner of the Haley Center's ninth floor are the offices of the Southern Humanities Review, a quarterly journal published by Auburn University.
Founded in 1967 by the Auburn College of Liberal Arts and Southern Humanities Council, Southern Humanities Review publishes works of fiction, poetry, critical essays and book reviews on a variety of topics.
"It's considered a prestigious thing for a university to have a journal," said Karen Beckwith, SHR's managing editor, who has been with the journal in some capacity for almost 25 years. "We've had over the years calls and queries from other schools wanting to start one. It's something that is considered to be valuable."
Writers typically submit material to be included in the journal. It then goes through a multiple-round process where the editors decide whether the piece should be published.
"Anyone can submit to it, and then it goes through several layers of readers," Beckwith said. "The first round of readers rejects the stuff that is obviously bad and simply not ready for publication. Then
several of us will get together and discuss stuff that made the first cut."
Southern Humanities Review added Skip Horack to its staff last year. Horack is currently in his first year as an English professor at Auburn and fiction editor for SHR.
"I'm pretty new to it, but I was certainly aware of it before I came here," Horack said. "It's pretty well-known and well-respected. It has a good reputation throughout the country as a publisher of literary fiction and poetry and criticism."
Horack, who has also written two award-winning books - "The Eden Hunter" and "The Southern Cross" -- says working with Southern Humanities Review gives him an opportunity to see what other writers are doing.
"You get a real sense of what's out there and what people are doing," Horack said. "It's really interesting coming at it as a writer."
Literary review journals battle a stigma that the editors are searching for reasons to turn down submissions, but Horack says it is the opposite at Southern Humanities Review.
"With everything that comes in, as soon as I turn to page one, you're hoping it's going to be something you're really going to connect with and want to publish," Horack said. "Who doesn't want to have a great reading experience?"
Southern Humanities Review also has student editors, giving them an opportunity to read what other writers from across the country are writing.
"I've used this as an experience that whenever we've reacted negatively to a piece, I've taken that as something not to do," said Savannah Harrison, a first-year master's student in creative writing.
Students also find seeing what people submit to journals fascinating.
"It's useful to see what people are doing, trying to do and sending to journals," said Michelle Hopf, a second-year master's student in creative writing.
Southern Humanities Review is available at the university bookstore. People can also submit a subscription form on the journal's website.
"You can learn something from anything you read," Horack said. "There's a lot of really great writing out there."
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