The Grand Central Review was born on a chilly September night when three writers from across the spectrum of publishing were drinking on a Manhattan rooftop. Richard Monaco, author of over a dozen bestselling novels including the Pulitzer-nominated Parsival or a Knight’s Tale, had invited two friends from Atlanta, Leverett Butts, whose independently published Emily’s Stitches: The Confessions of T
homas Calloway was nominated for the 2013 Georgia Author of the Year Award, and Scott Thompson, author of the award-winning Young Men Shall See, published by a small press in Texas, to stay for a few days while they all gave a reading in New York City’s Lower East Side. During their talk, they decided to launch their own online literary website in order to address a growing problem with literary journals and magazines that few people other than the writers submitting to them acknowledge: Too often good work is rejected based on considerations having very little to do with quality of writing. Literary journals will often not publish a well written piece if it fits too much into a genre (Western, sci-fi, fantasy) while genre magazines will often shy away from well written work if it seems too literary. Grand Central Review takes its name from the main transportation hub in New York City that connects the city with the rest of the nation and the world. We hope our website will similarly bring together writers from all genres and styles in a celebration of quality writing for its own sake. At Grand Central Review, we believe that good writing is good writing regardless of genre, so that is what we publish: interesting writing done well. We encourage the submission of literary work, genre pieces, traditional forms, or experimental writing. In short, we will not reject work simply because it “doesn’t fit our needs.” Our needs are simple: We publish the best poetry, prose, and art we can find.
