Information for UA MFA Students & Interested Graduate Students

Black Warrior Review is entirely staffed by graduate students from the University of Alabama’s MFA program. While currently, no editor position can be held by students in any other program, all graduate students in the English Department at UA are welcome to serve as Assistant Editors to help us make decisions on what gets published in our bi-annual issues.

All staff positions are funded via graduate student stipend lines through the University of Alabama’s English department. BWR staff receives course releases determined by the amount of work each position calls for, and summer pay separately from pay during the academic year. Summer pay must be negotiated with university administrators, and thus the amounts are not guaranteed or standardized currently. In addition, BWR staff has been tracking their working hours for the past two years to push for more equitable compensation in the form of course releases and better summer pay.

Staff positions are entirely elected by any graduate student who has served as a reader for BWR, except for the positions of Editor-in-Chief & Managing Editor, both of which must be elected by the BWR staff and subsequently endorsed by the Office of Student Media. You must make masthead for the respective genre editor you’d like to vote for. Elections are typically held at the beginning of October or at the end of September in the fall semester.

Staff position tenures officially begin on December 1st, and end on November 30th. This annual turnover keeps the editorial team fresh and new, and allows many MFA students to hold staff positions with BWR during their time at the University of Alabama. Because of this turnover, however, there is often a learning curve when it comes to serving as an editor.

Because BWR is designated as a student organization through the University of Alabama, we have a faculty advisor who offers advice and perspective when needed. Our current faculty advisor is Joel Brouwer, a professor in the Creative Writing program. We are managed by the university’s Office of Student Media.

BWR strives to maintain its independence as a graduate run journal so that we can see to its mission every year of striving to publish work that is daring, experimental, and represents authors in the margins.

If you or anyone you know has questions about BWR, please feel free to reach out to blackwarriorreview@gmail.com or  managingeditor.bwr@gmail.com.