My magazine that I picked was called Glass Mountain, volume 18, Spring 2017 edition and it is a literary journal edited by undergraduate students at the University of Houston. This magazine that I purchased was celebrating their 10th anniversary Issue also, which I personally thought was really neat. It is Dedicated to showcasing the work from undergraduate and emerging artists around the world. Glass Mountain publishes issues each Fall and Spring.
They had a total of 77 pages, with the last two pages used as an announcement for their submission and another announcement for a conference for emerging writers. Their budget is a lot because not only is their cover a glossy colored photo, but the inside is colored as well. The only issue I had was that some pages were glossy, others were paper material feeling. Some of the art pages were also on glossy paper, but then some were not. For my advice would be to stick with one material or the other for the art works or not. Glossy for all or not glossy for all for the artwork.
The magazine consisted of half and half of poetry and nonfiction pieces (even with the contest winners). The poem and picture that I liked was on page 48, by Ayokunle Falomo called on white silence after the deforestation of black bodies. Right beside this poem was a piece of artwork called “Inspire Unity” by Corey Michael Scott. These two pieces together was really powerful to me, especially with the political issues going around the world right now about race. I really liked that and praised the magazine for setting it up like that. Overall I enjoyed this magazine and the colors as well. I would suggest for future reference for The Iris Review to maybe consider only publishing fewer pieces to where they can consider publishing it in all colors one semester. Also, here is the link to visit their website to see the guidelines of their publication: www.glassmountainmag.com.
-Roberta Hamm-Bonsle, editor