Three years ago, when Olivia Soffey ’26 first volunteered as a student editor for the Bryant Literary Review (BLR), it was just she and her friend Audrey Jones ’24 combing through stacks of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction submissions alongside History, Literature, and the Arts Professor Tom Roach, Ph.D., and History, Literature, and the Arts Lecturer Eric Paul.
Fast forward to the fall of 2025, Soffey now had 19 other student editors by her side through the creation of the new course, “Editing and Publishing Workshop: The Bryant Literary Review.”
“It was exciting to see so many people getting involved,” says Soffey, a Literary and Cultural Studies major. “I loved the collaboration. Everybody was so passionate, and we had great professors who facilitated strong discussions.”
Founded in 2000 by Rhode Island Poet Laureate Emeritus and Bryant University Professor Emeritus of English Tom Chandler, the BLR has traditionally been a faculty-run endeavor with student participation per faculty recommendation. Now, the new course, which is open to all majors, provides a full class of undergrads — under the mentorship of Roach and Paul — with experience in literary magazine editing.
“If you want to get into editing or copywriting, it's a really great resource for developing analysis skills and learning about the publishing process,” says Soffey, a published author.
A rigorous search
Within the course, undergrads were assigned two to three pieces to read each week in preparation for their next class. After carefully reviewing each creative work, they wrote a comprehensive report on the pros and cons before discussing their thoughts with their assigned poetry or fiction group.
The journal typically features 25 poems and eight to 10 stories each edition — only accepting 2 percent of submissions for publication, says Roach, the BLR’s fiction editor. He adds that the BLR receives approximately 350 poetry and fiction submissions annually and students’ go-to reaction for any piece should be ‘reject.’
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“I love that they took ownership of these stories and held such strong positions,” says Roach, noting that students honed their understanding of creative expression by reading previous BLR issues and sorting through an initial stack of submissions for the current issue.
Paul, the BLR’s poetry editor, shares that the course helps developing writers and editors gain autonomy, accountability, and a deeper understanding of creative writing.
“It’s a cool way for students to understand who they are in a collaborative work environment,” notes Paul.
Collaboration and consideration
To ensure that undergrads have the opportunity to review both poetry and fiction, Roach and Paul split their class in half; ten of the students spent the first portion of the semester working with Roach before swapping with their peers and working with Paul. If a student liked what they read, the class would all read the piece and decide if it was BLR worthy together.
“It was a unique class that transformed learning,” says Kameron Christ ’26, an Accounting major, who appreciated the collaboration the class inspired. “It allowed us to do our separate work outside of class and, in class, just talk and get our ideas flowing.”
In addition to selecting the journal’s contents, students learned about the steps that go into creating and publishing a book and spoke with industry professionals, including award-winning author Shastri Akella, Ph.D., Editorial Director of University of Minnesota Press Jason Weidemann, and founding editor of Black Ocean Press Janaka Stucky.
“It was a cool experience to hear how they ended up where they were,” Christ recalls.
Following the course’s conclusion in December, Roach and Paul sent the selected submissions for layout, but they had one last task for student editors: reviewing cover art options — all of which were created by Bryant students — and voting on which would be chosen. The final selection was a piece created by Shelby Anderson '27.
When Soffey, who will be graduating in May, looks back on her time working on the BLR, she feels reassured that her work is having a lasting impact. She explains that, on the first day of the editing and publishing class, everyone read stories from the older BLR editions, selected a piece, and explained why they liked it as an icebreaker activity. Several of the students picked stories Soffey had advocated for as a volunteer student editor.
“That felt good,” Soffey says. “It was like, ‘Oh, the stories I'm picking are resonating with people,’ and that was meaningful.”
The Bryant Literary Review will celebrate the release of this year’s edition from 4 to 6 p.m. on April 15 in Room 236 of the university’s Quinlan/Brown Academic Innovation Center. The Bryant community is invited, and writers from this year’s edition of the BLR will join via Zoom to read excerpts of their work.