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artwork: "Outgrown & Overgrown" by Talia Welke
The application period to join the fishladder staff is currently CLOSED!
The fishladder staff is built anew every Fall Semester from applicants who are currently students at Grand Valley State University. Interested students will submit an application in early to mid-October, and then the Editor in Chief and Faculty Advisor will interview applicants for the various available positions.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who can work on fishladder?
Any current student at Grand Valley State University can apply to work on fishladder.
If I am on staff, can I still submit work to fishladder?
Members of fishladder editorial staff are welcome to submit work to the issue they are working on, but should use the "Staff Submissions" link for fair, anonymous consideration for publication.
I'm interested in joining the staff! Where should I start?
Right here on this website. Fill out an application before the application deadline and you will be under consideration to work on the magazine.
Are any of the staff positions paid?
All positions on the fishladder staff are unpaid. They are student volunteer positions on the student run magazine.
What is the workload like for Assistant Genre Editors and Readers/Reviewers?
Readers/Reviewers and Genre Editors don't have a set number of hours or work schedule. Submissions are open through the end of the Fall term and then the bulk of the reading happens over Winter Break. Then the editors and readers will meet sometime in January or February to talk about the submissions and start making decisions about what goes in the magazine.
STAFF JOB DESCRIPTIONS
Editor in Chief: The Editor in Chief runs fishladder. They build the masthead, organize and run staff meetings, and are ultimately responsible for all final decisions about the journal's content. Because the Editor in Chief is nearly always a student who served as Assistant Editor the previous year, there is not an application for becoming Editor in Chief.
Assistant Editor: The Assistant Editor helps the Editor in Chief organize and run staff meetings, and aids in finalizing all decisions for the journal. The Assistant Editor typically takes over the journal as Editor in Chief the following year. Often, the Assistant Editor is a student who has worked on fishladder in some other capacity the previous year, but this isn't always the case.
Layout Editor: The layout editor is in charge of designing and assembling fishladder in InDesign, and is often called upon to help in the final decisions about the journal's content. the busiest time of the semester for the layout editor is when the journal goes into production, usually in February of Winter Semester.
Genre Editors: There are four genre editors: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art/photography. Genre Editors run meetings with their reviewers and readers and are in charge of making selections for the magazine from the submissions queue. Genre Editors are often students who have served as an assistant genre editor the previous year.
Assistant Genre Editors: There is an Assistant Genre Editor in each of the four genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art/photography. Assistant genre editors help the Genre Editor run meetings and make selections for the magazine and generally become Genre Editors the following year. They are typically students who have served as readers or reviewers the previous year, but no previous experience with the magazine is required.
Readers & Reviewers: Readers and reviewers in each of the four genres help determine what stories, essays, poems, and artwork make it into the magazine. They read submissions and meet with the genre editors to help parse out which pieces are ready for publication. Readers and reviewers are the backbone of the fishladder editorial staff.