Comments about the Scribendi Experience
from previous staff members

My experience with the Honors Review, overall, was positive, although elements of it were quite difficult and painful. I'll try to describe one or two examples of each ...Perhaps the most positive experience was to work under the guidance of V.B. Price, who offered us mentorship in matters both editorial and aesthetic. It is difficult to isolate any one instance where his influence was unusually salient but it permeated everything that we did, from our editorial meetings about “house style” to our decisions about design and layout. Clearly his influence is beyond narration. One of the more painful, although enduringly positive experiences was working with Daniel, on my introductory essay for the magazine. Daniel acted as a gentle, yet authoritative editor. Although I had a certain degree of confidence in my own writing, that confidence was largely misplaced. Daniel was the first person to really sit down with me and work on a piece of writing, questioning my original intentions and forcing me to improve my writing. Later I worked in the Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin, where I finished my Ph.D. in English Language and Linguistics. What I did in that job was much the same as what Daniel did for me; I hope that I show our students at least half the literary wisdom and personal compassion that he did with me that one afternoon talking with me about my essay on the evils of list-making. Now for the negative... Negotiating our “house style” was perhaps the most unpleasant experience of the entire process. We fractured into hideous partisanship. I had worked with professional editors before, so I felt we should commit to particular standards. Unfortunately, my commitment became the object of derision; as a result, my commitment also became completely absurd (which prompted the title of my essay, “Lists, commas and ampersands”). I humiliated myself with my tenacity, and I regret the unpleasant display today. One difficulty with assembling such a staff for a literary magazine is that honors students have not usually learned humility. In fact, their seminars have most likely fostered an undeserved sense of intellectual superiority. I continued to work with St. Martin's Press after working on the Honors Review; and I also worked as an copyeditor and journalist with an Austin weekly paper. As a result of my experiences with the HR, I was much more capable of negotiating effectively, knowing when to stand my ground and when to relent. I will probably begin a job as a professor this fall. So, Scribendi has had a substantial influence on my current profession. May I offer one caveat to the staff--take care to be kind to one another about your own writing. As an extension of that, only offer honest commentary about the pieces you choose to publish.
– Felicia Jean Steele, Scribendi 1992-1993

Scribendi was a very positive class for me. The fact that I was published and won the WRHC poetry award made me look at my writing in a new way, and it gave me confidence in my writing. Working as a group to choose which pieces made it in to the publication was great. We learned to communicate and trust each other, and, in the end, we made a great issue. I would suggest this class to anyone in the Honors Program. Leslie is an excellent professor who helped us work through problems when they arose. The fact that she was writing her own book showed me that you can become a writer, no matter what other people say. Without Leslie, I doubt our class would have grown as much as it did. Scribendi definitely had an impact on my professional career. After I had worked on Scribendi, I worked as the entertainment editor for the Daily Lobo, as well as a freelance writer for the music section of the Weekly Alibi.
– Rachel Heisler, Scribendi 1998-1999

The Scribendi experience for me was absolutely positive. Of course in any collaborative project of Scribendi’s magnitude there are both positive and negative memories of it, but the overall experience--the whole collaborative creative process as well as becoming familiar with publication design and the printing process--was tremendously exciting and fulfilling. (I do think my eyesight suffered after all the nights Sarah and I spent formatting the magazine text, but it's nothing carrots and glasses won't fix. Scribendi affected my professional career in that I was later hired by an employer to make marketing materials, based on my creative writing and publication design experience. Pagemaker knowledge, publicity experience, editing, etc. look great on resumes. I've got so many Scribendi stories....But here's one that really typifies frustration and screaming of some of our late-night editing stints: There was a piece going into the magazine that I thought was super-cheesy (everyone's got one or two that they don't want in there) and I was the person who had to call the author and discuss the editing decisions we had made concerning the piece. Of course the author thought we were sacrificing the piece's integrity. So the author and I went back and forth for about an hour and half on the phone and finally reach a compromise. Anyhow, after all the work we had put into that one piece...I found a typo in it when we got the finished magazine. What a thorn in my side. Proofread! Proofread! Proofread! And then have someone proofread after you...
– Marin Goza, Scribendi 1998-1999