New Plains Review started thirty years ago with a general purpose of helping students at UCO help get published, but soon realized a prestigious journal resists limitations. With the invention of the internet, literature took an abrupt shift and simultaneous submissions took a steep hike. New Plains has understood the importance on keeping with the times while maintaining the prestige in being a worldwide literary journal, and are in our first times of reaching out for submissions beyond poetry, prose, and visual art to include music, spoken word poetry, and short films.
This progress was sparked by a former editor, Joshua "Grizzly" Shepard, who first suggested we use Submittable, which would make our reading and suggestion process easier, allowing time to be put elsewhere in other projects going on. The practicum class, Publishing & Editing, at the University of Central Oklahoma allows for this type of holistic environment to allow student editors the chance to have these brainstorming sessions and suggestions; and our Executive Editor, Shay Rahm, leads the charge.
We hope to only see further progress, which propels New Plains Review into the realm of publishers like The New Yorker, and look forward to experiencing this journey.