Sapling issue # 819
The one in which we talk to Michael Robins of The McNeese Review and Dr. Lynn Watson of Boudin
Hi writers.
Do you journal? I was dedicated to mine from age twelve through my early twenties, but at some point I drifted away. I enjoyed this listen on “The transformative power of keeping a daily journal” on NPR recently. In it, Suleika Jaouad, author of the new writing craft book The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, discusses her daily journaling practice. I haven’t dusted mine off yet, but I’ll admit I’ve been thinking about it during these scorching hot summer days.
Now, here’s what’s happening in the small press world this week.
—Kit
Managing Editor / Sapling editor
Black Lawrence Press
Contest: Flash 405, Exposition Review’s multi-genre flash competition
Genre(s): fiction, nonfiction, poetry, stage and screen, experimental
See guidelines for further details.
Award: Online publication plus cash prize, as follows:
1st prize: Online publication + 40% of all entry fees.
2nd prize: Online publication + 20% of all entry fees.
Honorable Mention: Online publication.
Entry Fee: $5
Deadline: Open August 4–September 5, 2025
Guidelines: expositionreview.com/flash-405
Journal: the museum of americana: A LITERARY REVIEW
Genre(s): fiction, nonfiction, humor writing, poetry, and art
Format: online
Website: themuseumofamericana.net
Guidelines: themuseumofamericana.net/submissions
Open to submissions during the month of August.
Small Press: 2Leaf Press
Genre(s): Nonfiction; occasionally fiction; poetry from established authors
Website: 2leafpress.org/online22
Guidelines: 2leafpress.org/online22/2lp-submissions
Open to submissions year-round
Feature: The McNeese Review and Boudin
This week, Sapling spoke Michael Robins, Editor of The McNeese Review, and Dr. Lynn Watson, Editor of Boudin.
SAPLING: The McNeese Review was formed in 1948 as a scholarly journal out of McNeese State University; since 2012, it has been publishing poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction as a literary journal. Boudin, “the spicy online cousin of The McNeese Review,” launched in 2018.
For those first learning about The McNeese Review and Boudin, what are a few key things you’d like writers to know?
Michael Robins: I’d like readers and potential contributors to know that The McNeese Review (an annual print journal) and Boudin (online) are produced by the students in our MFA program, which is the oldest MFA program in the state of Louisiana. We strive to showcase the most exciting writing that comes our way. For The McNeese Review, that means poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, plus visual art, interviews, and academic essays. Although I serve as Editor of The McNeese Review, it’s really the vision of our MFA students that shapes each issue.
Vallie Lynn Watson: I haven’t done extensive research, but Boudin might be the only literary magazine around that’s named after sausage! Boudin is a popular-to-Southern-Louisiana pork dish prepared with rice and Cajun seasoning. Boudin aims to represent its namesake by keeping things spicy: we rotate guest editors, theme issues in an attempt to represent a cultural conversation, find homes for less traditional forms and styles, etc.
SAPLING: As the editors behind The McNeese Review and Boudin, respectively, what would you say are the hardest parts of your jobs? The best parts?
M. R.: Since each new issue of The McNeese Review is published in the spring, our collective efforts begin during the preceding summer, which should ideally be a time for our current students to take a breath and refocus energies on their writing. You could argue that The McNeese Review offers these students another way to be engaged with literature during the break, but it’s nonetheless challenging, perhaps more so for students who are new to the program and haven’t yet begun taking classes. The reward for this work, of course, is providing a home for original, provocative writing. For me, it’s especially gratifying to hear from our contributors, and each issue of The McNeese Review offers a unique, never-to-be-repeated community that extends across the country and beyond.
V. L. W.: The best part of editing Boudin is that I get to wear all the hats: I’m teaching the students how to run a magazine. I’m reading submissions. I’m writing letters from the editor. The hardest part is the constancy that a monthly magazine requires!
SAPLING: Both The McNeese Review and Boudin are edited by MFA program faculty (yourselves!) and staffed by MFA candidates at McNeese. Can you tell us a little bit about how work is selected and the issues produced?
V. L. W.: Boudin gives the MFA student editors a unique opportunity in that they get a monthly issue all to themselves, and learn every step and angle of production. They craft their own CFS, read all submissions and make all selections, build the issue in WordPress, and so on. They get to feel the excitement that goes along with sending an acceptance email, as well as learn how difficult it is to reject work after so much careful consideration. And, they get to do a little writing themselves in their Letter from the Guest Editor, reflecting on why they chose that month’s theme and the work they chose to represent it.
M. R.: As a student-produced literary journal, the masthead at The McNease Review changes annually, with our third-year students graduating each spring and our first-year students arriving in the fall. The selection process ultimately comes down to the tastes of our genre editors, who each work closely with an assistant editor and the other student readers. Every submission to The McNeese Review is read multiple times and the process toward accepting individual pieces includes several rounds of thoughtful, engaging debate and discussion.
SAPLING: Where do you imagine your two literary publications to be headed over the next couple years? Are there any changes you foresee taking place in the near future, or anything on the horizon you’d like people to know about?
V. L. W.: Boudin’s first flash fiction chapbook contest, which will be judged by Roxane Gay, is currently taking submissions: the winning chapbook will be printed as a special issue of The McNeese Review and will be distributed by Texas Review Press. And this summer, Boudin is hosting McNeese’s first writing retreat, in which five of our MFA students were selected for a 9-day residency at a farmhouse in the hills of Alabama, which includes dedicated writing time, and multiple conferences with our mentors: Michael Martone in fiction, and Shanti Weiland in poetry.
M. R.: The primary focus of any literary journal should be the work of its authors. While I’d love Boudin and The McNease Review to receive recognition in the form of awards or inclusion in the “best of” anthologies, I care most about creating a journal that will engage our readers. As an active poet, I was very excited by the poetry in our most recent issue, which included poems by Gabrielle Bates, Todd Robinson, Dorothy Chan, and Ada Limón, who just recently concluded her stint as the United States Poet Laureate. It all comes back to the writing, however, and by publishing challenging, imaginative work, The McNeese Review will continue to attract submissions from both established writers and new voices.
SAPLING: What one or two literary magazines deserve more recognition, and why should more people be reading them (and perhaps seeking a home for their own writing there)?
M. R.: Christopher Payne, Dylan Krieger, and the folks at Fine Print are doing great work producing an outstanding literary journal in tabloid-sized newsprint. Their press also produces books, chapbooks, and a bunch merchandise, plus limited-edition items such as posters and even a vinyl record.
My favorite online journal in this moment is AUTOCORRECT, which just launched their first issue and is edited by Adam Clay. Adam has been a friend for many years now, and we met through his previous work at Typo Magazine, which he coedited for twenty years with poet Matthew Henriksen.
V. L. W.: I am so excited every time a new issue of Gooseberry Pie comes out, and am incredibly impressed with what the magazine has accomplished in its short existence. Editor-in-Chief Jeff Harvey, in each issue, manages to capture such a world of stories all in a strict form of only six sentences. Also, I consider Bending Genres a big influence; when I took over Boudin, I knew I wanted to embrace hybridity as beautifully as Bending Genres does.
SAPLING: What’s exciting you right now, either within the scope of The McNeese Review and Boudin or further afield?
V. L. W.: I am excited that Boudin, in its own tiny way, can provide an artistic outlet for ideas that our country often marginalizes. Our first Pride issue will be out in June. February saw a brilliant issue for Black History Month. And as I write this, we’re about to go live with an issue on Immigration and Displacement full of such rich work.
M. R.: I can’t wait to share with my daughter the documentary on Paul Rubens, which is probably the best film I’ve seen this year. My students consistently introduce me to new music, literary works, and other art, and I’m excited for those conversations when each semester begins. And let’s not forget that being in love is the most exciting thing of all.
SAPLING: Just for fun (because we like fun), if The McNeese Review and Boudin were co-hosting a party, who would be at the top of the guest list?
V. L. W.: Well, the person who deserves a seat at the head of the table is Michael Horner, chair of McNeese’s MFA program and the true and unsung leader of the Boudin/The McNeese Review entity. I don’t know if that answer counts: he’s been around McNeese for more than twenty years, so is hardly a guest! But we couldn’t produce these magazines without him.
M. R.: I’m a sucker for most things Bill Murray, who has been a been a supporter of Poets House and has read poems to various audiences, including a group of construction workers. I’d also be curious to see what happens if you seated the brilliant minds of Sarah Silverman and Michelle Obama together at the same table. I think that would be a party.
SAPLING: Lynn, Michael, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to Sapling about your publications! We’re excited to read.
Michael Robins is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently The Bright Invisible
(Saturnalia Books, 2022). He lives in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he teaches in the MFA
program at McNeese State University and serves as Editor of The McNeese Review.
Vallie Lynn Watson is the author of the novel A River So Long (Luminis Books); her Pushcart-nominated short stories appear widely in literary journals such as Hobart, Midway Journal, and Moon City Review. Watson teaches fiction in the MFA program at McNeese State University, where she edits the magazine Boudin. She hunts for seaglass in her spare time.