OUR STORIES, My Story

Alexis Santi offers a unique service in the battering world of literary journals.


He and his staff at OUR STORIES provide a critique of each and every story that is submitted. For seasoned submitters, the standard response is the form rejection. If you are lucky, or unlucky (depending if you see degrees of rejection as good, which I do) you get a note about the story from the editor/reader. In it, there is usually an expressed admiration for the story. There is not enough admiration, however, to take the story. Only enough to make everyone feel very bad about the outcome.


OUR STORIES provides crucial advice for the developing story. Santi and the staff will comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the piece, and provide a guide map for improving the story.


The my story part of OUR STORIES was a piece called "And Moses Made a Serpent of Brass." OUR STORIES took it after some simple alterations. It was the first story that I published (more came later, as if OUR STORIES was a key I picked up along the way).


The fact that OUR STORIES, a journal that takes a tender and loving treatment of our writing, took my first work of fiction, made it all the more satisfying.