Laura Biagi brings enthusiasm, creative initiatives to her role as SER's editor in chief to take the magazine in new directions

Once Laura Biagi settled on Florida State University as her choice for a doctoral program in English-Creative Writing, she set her sights on working with Southeast Review, a national literary magazine housed in FSU’s English department.

Biagi not only brought an abundance of writing, editing, and publishing experience with her to Tallahassee, but she also had plenty of enthusiasm for the work environment.

“This world is so fascinating, and you get to see so much emerging talent and people who are playing with different kinds of ideas and forms,” says Biagi, who is in her third year of her doctoral studies. “You get to see what really strikes you as fresh and original.”

Her first role at Southeast Review was as associate fiction editor, and she was positioned to be the magazine’s assistant editor for 2021-22, second in command under English alumna Diamond Forde. Before those new responsibilities began, however, Forde earned a University Fellow for Faculty Diversity position at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

Instead of assistant editor, Biagi became editor in chief, and she is now in her second year at the top of the masthead. Biagi initially felt some nervousness with what she calls an “accelerated entry into the editor role,” but continued support from Forde and past editors in chief through the transition was a great help to her.

“The situation was definitely overwhelming in terms of initial feelings and thinking ‘I hope I can handle this with being a graduate student, here to write and teach as well,’” she says.

Biagi relied on input and insights before she took over from Forde and especially Zach Linge, the Southeast Review editor from the fall of 2019 until the end of spring 2021.

“What I was most nervous about was that I had only been associate fiction editor for a year, and that during the pandemic, so we didn’t have any in-person masthead meetings,” Biagi says. “I knew what Southeast Review was, but then I really started talking with Zach and Diamond more in transition meetings about our goals and what makes us different.

“So, I was nervous about making sure I could fill their shoes, but that’s an exciting thing about the editor role, you can do new things with the position and take the journal in new directions.”

Biagi also carried with her a strong background in both academics and in publishing. She graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University in 2009 with bachelor’s degrees in English Literature-Creative Writing and in Anthropology. She then earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-Fiction from the University of Houston in 2020.

Biagi is the recipient of a Kentucky Emerging Artist Award, she was a finalist for the Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award from The Florida Review, and her work has been published in Anthropology & Humanism, among other publications. Recently, her short fiction was performed at FSU’s Festival of the Creative Arts in early October 2022. In early November, the literary magazine TriQuarterly accepted Biagi's fiction submission for publication in a forthcoming issue.

During the eight years between her time at Northwestern and Houston, Biagi worked with the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency in New York City, first as an assistant for three years and then as a literary and subsidiary rights agent from August 2012 to July 2017.

She enrolled at Houston in the fall of that year, and immediately took on the assistant fiction editor position for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, which is housed in Houston’s English department. Biagi was fiction editor for the journal in her final two years at Houston.

FSU’s program offers a lot of opportunities to really dig into your work, to do workshops, to get a lot of great mentorship, and to be set up for success with job placement. And this is a bigger graduate program, bigger than most schools, so you meet a lot of people from all different types of backgrounds.

— Laura Biagi

Having the opportunity to work with Southeast Review appealed to Biagi when considering doctoral programs. Tallahassee’s strong literary community, the national recognition of FSU’s Creative Writing Program, and other benefits of being in the English department solidified her decision.

“I knew that I want to write and I really like having the balance of writing and teaching, so that was a real draw for me,” she says. “FSU’s program offers a lot of opportunities to really dig into your work, to do workshops, to get a lot of great mentorship, and to be set up for success with job placement. And this is a bigger graduate program, bigger than most schools, so you meet a lot of people from all different types of backgrounds.”

Biagi’s academic path at FSU has included taking workshops with Professors Robert Olen Butler, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, and Mark Winegardner as well as Assistant Professor Ravi Howard. Biagi says those faculty members have inspired her in different ways to take her work and her ambitions further.

Stuckey-French is Biagi’s major professor on her dissertation committee, and Winegardner is also on the committee.

“Elizabeth and I are really aligned in how we think about process, and I was able to work on my novel in her class, which was really just cool to get her feedback on that,” Biagi says. “I worked on short stories in Mark’s class and that was super helpful to get his perspective on that. He knows a lot about the literary world, and so that's a huge asset to have in terms of what things I need to be doing.”

In addition to her main doctoral focus in Creative Writing, Biagi is earning a minor in Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with English Professor Maxine Montgomery helping to lead that portion of her committee.

When she arrived at FSU and began her tenure with Southeast Review as associate fiction editor, Biagi worked with Linge and Forde, as well as then-fiction editor Rebecca Orchard.

“I think it was maybe a bit atypical for somebody who’s in their first year to even become an associate fiction editor, but everyone was very welcoming, saying ‘we’re thrilled to have you join the masthead,’” Biagi says.

Her own time in the literary world at Jean V. Naggar gave Biagi experience reading through the “slush,” unsolicited book submissions writers send, Biagi says. One of her clients became a New York Times bestseller.

With literary magazines, though, the focus is not on novels; instead “you get see this entire other world where the writing is really focused on craft. The submissions are more like writers’ writing in many ways,” she says.

Making the jump to editor in chief for Southeast Review from being fiction editor is also a bit out of the norm for the journal. Graduate students in poetry have filled the seat over the past several years, Biagi says. Writing prose can often be more time-consuming, Biagi adds, so fewer prose writers take on these types of graduate positions, often at the expense of their own writing time.

To help find a comfortable and workable rhythm, Biagi has relied on a strong editorial team around her, listening to their ideas for the journal, while also assessing what initiatives Linge and Dorothy Chan, who was editor from fall of 2018 until spring of 2019, implemented for the journal.

Chan, for example, expanded the publication through soliciting more submissions and increasing the number of pages in print. Linge focused on making the journal more accessible and posting more content online during their time as editor.

“I feel like I sit somewhere in between Dorothy and Zach,” Biagi says, adding that she leans a bit toward Linge’s way of slimming down the print journal and posting content such as book reviews and interviews online. “They were very smart at figuring out how to make the journal as efficient as possible. But both Zach and Dorothy were really smart for achieving their missions.”

In her first year as editor, Biagi has established long-term plans and goals, with some of those changes already achieved. For example, Biagi returned to printing the journal’s color artist in color in print issues, though in a more cost-effective manner than previously under Chan, which had led Linge to print color artists in black and white.

The Spring 2022 issue, Vol. 40.1, was the first to incorporate Biagi’s switch. In November 2022, when Vol. 40.2 is published, the issue will make an exception and feature two artists, both printed in color, rather than one color and one black-and-white artist. One is the journal’s art contest winner, and the other a Ukrainian artist, Marynka Dovhanych, whose art chronicles the war of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“It’s incredibly powerful art, so we wanted to be sure to showcase it in full color within the issue,” Biagi says. “The cover will remain black and white as per our aesthetic; Dovhanych converted one of her art pieces to black and white for the cover.”

One of the first changes she implemented as editor in chief, in the Fall 2021 issue, Vol. 39.2, was to sequence the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction within the journal, interspersing them rather than keeping them in their own separate sections.

“Now, reading the journal as a whole is its own creative experience, in addition to each piece being a creative experience on its own,” Biagi says.

Following a path for the journal that is situated between Linge’s and Chan’s successes, Biagi says, is a way to retain both the online accessibility of the journal—with online exclusives in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—but also the prestige that a print journal offers.

Purchasing print copies and subscribing to the journal is now easier and the demand has been steady, a trend that supplements Southeast Review’s profit in important ways.

“There’s also a degree of prestige for a writer in being able to say their work has been published in a print journal and being able to hold a copy of it in their hands,” Biagi says. “And prestige for us in that print journal looking as strong, polished, and professional as it can be, showcasing all our contributors’ work in the best light. While, at the same time, it’s quite attractive for a writer to be able to have their work available online and be able to share it around on social media as a link.”

One of the key efforts for the journal has always been to publish and champion emerging writers alongside well-established ones, Biagi says. Her goal is to solicit more-established authors for the fiction and nonfiction sections, as the poetry section has consistently been very strong in this area. The journal will publish one of the solicited fiction writers in the Spring 2023 issue.

Along with these ideas, either slightly refashioned or new ones, Biagi and the rest of the masthead members look for other ways to establish a stronger journal.

“Having long-term goals that we’re working toward is important,” says Amanda Hadlock, the journal’s assistant editor. “The goal is to keep these established things that we do but also to have the freedom to create what we want.”

Hadlock, who is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in fiction, took on her current position during Biagi’s transition to editor in chief. They both officially started in their roles in the summer of 2021.

“There were definitely challenges because of Covid and having to work remotely together over that summer, but we did a pretty good job with everything,” she says. “We’re pretty flexible.”

Hadlock has organized Southeast Review’s annual fundraiser for the past two years, held during the middle of October and incorporating a Halloween-themed night of readings, auctions, and other events. She also organized a February 2022 creative writing workshop for incarcerated persons, onsite at the Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, Florida.

“Amanda has been doing really amazing work on all of these events,” Biagi says. “She is kind of like my right-hand woman, and she’s the kind of person who’s always willing to jump right in and help.”

The entire staff on the masthead has been dedicated to the success of the journal under Biagi’s tenure, she says.

“I couldn’t do anything without all of them, and they’re really amazing,” she adds. “Everybody's really just dedicated and putting so much heart and passion into the journal and being so generous with their time.”

Undergraduate students contribute to the journal as well, through internships. Arthur Noriega is an English-Creative Writing major who appreciates the opportunity to develop both his editorial abilities and writing skills. His Fall 2022 internship is giving him valuable magazine publishing experience, he says, especially under Biagi’s guidance.

“Laura Biagi has been wonderful to work with this semester, as she not only helms the Southeast Review to great effect but has also acted as a phenomenal mentor throughout our various projects,” Noriega adds. “Her willingness to change and adapt to new situations has been something I wish to carry on in my own projects, and it’s what has made my time at the Southeast Review more than just a memorable experience.”

When it comes to making decisions about the journal, Biagi follows Linge’s democratic model established when they were editor. Linge would hold meetings with staff members when changes were made, even at the level of the SER logo being revised.

Laura's willingness to change and adapt to new situations has been something I wish to carry on in my own projects, and it’s what has made my time at the Southeast Review more than just a memorable experience

— Arthur Noriega

Biagi praises the various teams that make up the masthead—totaling 23 people, including Hadlock as well as Forde and Linge as contributing editors—pointing out how everyone works together to keep the process running smoothly.

“My philosophy in the leader role is to let the experts do what they’re passionate about,” she says, referring to the fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and other masthead teams. “I’ll of course check in with them, helping with guidance, but they all have so much talent and that’s what I want to honor.”

The one ideal that Biagi would like to enact is paying more money to the journal’s contributors and solicited authors. Fundraisers and contests already help fund contributors, and increasing the amount of funding through additional programming and grants would bring more attention to the journal and would have an impact on the kind of work that is submitted for publication.

The journal’s efforts to gain more compensation and recognition for contributors also include submitting authors’ work for prizes and nominations. During Biagi’s tenure, Southeast Review authors have been selected for inclusion in the 2022 Best of the Net anthology and the 2022 Best Small Fictions anthology, as well as listed as notable in the 2022 Best American Essays.

Applying for grants is a new endeavor that Biagi has devoted time to under her tenure as editor. For example, Southeast Review is in the final stages of one through the Florida Department of State, among a group of literary arts grant applicants whose funding is currently only left to be approved by the Florida Legislature this spring when lawmakers meet regarding the state’s budget.

In 2022, Southeast Review was finalist for a Whiting Literary Magazine Prize, a major award for excellence within literary magazines.

“That’s a huge accomplishment for any literary magazine and something we’ve not come close to before,” Biagi says. “We were beat out by Electric Literature, which is a huge award-winning magazine with significantly more funds, resources, and programming than we have—so it’s actually a real honor to have been beat out by them.”

Beginning in 2023, the Whiting Foundation will provide more prizes each three-year submission cycle, up to eight from $10,000 to $20,000.

“We will be applying again this December,” Biagi says.

Beyond increasing funding for contributors with any additional funding from grants and awards, she would like to find way to give back financially to the staff.

“In a dream world, it would be amazing to be able to offer some kind of honorarium to our masthead,” she says. “Right now, everybody just does their work out of their love for the journal. We might not be able to pay a great deal, but it could build into something bigger over time.” 

For taking care of herself, Biagi says she is constantly re-evaluating the balance of being editor in chief, writing, teaching, and working toward her doctorate. She tries to work on her own writing in the morning, but schoolwork or teaching—and certainly her responsibilities for Southeast Review—can sometimes take over her time.

Going back to her own writing at night works if the journal is running smoothly. Setting aside time for activities such as running, playing tennis, and attending the Jerome Stern Reading Series is important to her as well. Biagi hopes to potentially partner the journal with the series, a weekly event coordinated by Creative Writing Program graduate students, to bring in bigger authors to Tallahassee and provide opportunities for those authors to network with writers in the graduate school.

“I’d had interest in doing something like this, and then Emilio Carrero, one of our new assistant nonfiction editors, came to me with a similar goal and lots of ideas, so we’re trying to make it happen,” Biagi says.

Another way that Biagi and her colleagues are working to expand what Southeast Review can offer to the local, national, and international literary communities is the revival of the Writer’s Regimen initiative. This past June, those who signed up had writing prompts and other writing inspiration delivered to them every day for 30 days. The initiative had been popular with online audiences in the past, and people were excited it was coming back, Biagi says.

“It was a huge success, and we’ll continue it again next summer, potentially looking at ways to expand it even more,” she adds.

With about 15 months of experience guiding the journal through an unexpected change in leadership and advancing goals for the future, Biagi keeps her composure.

“Some weeks are just crazier than others, but I think it’s working best when I can try to compartmentalize different times of my day,” she says.

Still, sitting in her Williams Building office, managing her role as editor in chief for Southeast Review, tops her list of things to do.

“I just love the energy around literary magazines,” Biagi says.

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