The Committee Room is happy to continue its
Literary Journal Series with a look at the
Beloit Fiction Journal. Founded in 1985 by novelist and journalist
Clint McCown, who was then a young professor of English at
Beloit College in Wisconsin, and a group of enthusiastic Beloit College students, the
BFJ has since its inception provided a showcase for both established and unknown writers.
Fred Burwell, writer and blogger, was a member of the original student staff. He sums up one of the
BFJ's guiding principles when he recalls those early days -- "We discovered that manuscript cover letters with laundry lists of past publications meant nothing – it would be too easy to stock a magazine with names familiar to the literary magazine establishment. Only the quality of the story mattered."
Chris Fink took over as editor of the
Beloit Fiction Journal when McCown stepped down in 2005. A widely published writer of fiction and non-fiction, Fink's stories and essays have appeared in many publications including the
Alaska Quarterly Review,
Hayden’s Ferry Review,
Malahat Review,
North Dakota Quarterly,
Other Voices, and
Phoebe. His book of fiction,
Farmer's Almanac, is forthcoming from
Emergency Press in 2012. He formerly edited the
Cream City Review.
Fink graciously sat down for an interview with
TCR.
