Bennington Review: A Practicum in Literary Editing and Publishing–Prose
Course Description
Summary
This two-credit course involves working on the conceptualization and editing of the national print literary magazine Bennington Review. Students will serve as Editorial Assistants for the magazine. The course will also engage students in how to approach fiction as an editor: from the selection process, macro edits, and micro edits—to the conversation with the writer. Students will learn to edit a fiction piece and as part of the course credit, they must turn around an edit to the instructor. Students will be reading up to 100 Bennington Review submissions by midterm before the course shifts towards a discussion of stories from the submissions for potential publication and a deeper dive into editorial practices.
Learning Outcomes
- students will be versed in a variety of successful past submissions and what fiction the Bennington Review is seeking
- students will be grouped into editorial teams and assigned all of the submissions at the beginning of the term
- students will be assigned stories to read prior to midterm and will vote and comment on individual stories as they are read
- students will learn and engage in editing practices using previously rejected stories from the submitted examples
Prerequisites
Students must submit a short note stating reasons they want to participate in the course and offer any editing experience they've had in the past as well, though no editing experience is strictly required.
Submissions should be submitted via this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuWN5vs6d7CrPk28hfvI9jiAI8BO5… by May 8, 2026. Students will be notified of acceptance into the class by May 12, 2026.
Corequisites
All students enrolled in a 4000 level literature course are required to attend Literature Evening and Poetry at Bennington events, which are held at 7pm on Wednesday evenings.