Dear Readers,
The Avery Review is launching its first annual open call for editors. Over the last several years (but especially since summer 2020), we’ve been thinking a lot about how we edit—evaluating not only our collective editorial practice but also our institutional attachments. Accordingly, before we begin another year of critical writing about and around architecture, the journal is restructuring its masthead.
The Avery Review has always sought to expand the voices and objects typically considered “architectural,” and to do this by engaging the work of others—always writing, to the best of our ability, with “non-architectural” fields, practices, and ideas. Our editorial team has been vital to this effort, shaping and supporting the thinking that emerges through our pages. Yet despite ad-hoc efforts along the way, the diversity, porousness, and reach of the journal has yet to live up to our expectations. And so it is in this spirit of creating editorial space that we are thrilled to be revising the journal’s editorial process and opening up the Avery Review’s community of editors.
Making room for different voices means giving up longstanding roles. Too many of us have been at the journal since it started in 2014. Going forward, there will be an overall term limit of ten years for existing editors to help make sure the conversation at the Avery Review (and those voices shaping it) can evolve. In order to accommodate folks at different stages of their careers and with different interests, the Avery Review has formalized its three editorial roles—contributing editors, editors at large, and guest editors—which editors may move between during their time at the journal. Current and outgoing editors will be responsible for bringing in new editors through the annual open call. The hope is that this more transparent and reciprocal structure will help the journal meet new editors wherever they are, just as it helps new editors meet the journal where it is.
Editorial Roles
Contributing editor: Consider this the most engaged of editorial roles. Contributing editors review all editorial submissions, edit for all five issues every year, and participate in the selection process for our Essay Prize. Contributing editors are also strongly encouraged to write for the journal, to frame out new lines of inquiry, and to cultivate new authors and writing. Contributing editors have a term length of three years.
Editor at large: Focusing primarily on recruitment, Editors at large operate in a capacity similar to the Contributing Editors, but only edit two to three essays annually and participate in the Essay Prize selection process. This smaller workload is intended to allow editors at large to contribute to the shaping of the journal mainly through the commissioning of new writing. Editors at large have a term length of two years.
Guest editor: The guest editor role is a one-year role, designed for those looking to gain more editorial experience or who wish to pursue a dedicated editorial project over the course of a year. Guest editors have the opportunity to join the editorial team in a longer-term capacity after they complete their guest editorship. More information on the position and on past projects here.
Open Call for Editors
The Avery Review is currently seeking applications for up to two contributing editors, two editors at large, and one guest editor.
Applications for the contributing editor and editor at large roles due November 28, 2021.
Applications for the guest editor role due December 10, 2021.
Should you be interested in any role, please email editors@averyreview.com with the subject line “contributing editor,” “editor at large,” or “guest editor.”
Applications should include:
– Brief CV (two pages maximum)
– Contact information for two potential references
– A cover letter that discusses your particular editorial interests and topics you might want to pursue in either the contributing editor or editor at large role
Based on the Avery Review’s editorial rates, contributing editors can receive up to $3,500 per publishing year; and editors at large can receive up to $1500 per publishing year. For more information, please see our fee structure below.
Guest editors receive a stipend of $2,500.
Candidates need not be located in the United States and need not have particular educational or professional qualifications. The Avery Review aspires to broaden the diversity of voices in publishing, to support a wide range of perspectives on what constitutes architectural thought, and to encourage writers pursuing underexplored ideas. We welcome applicants who illuminate architecture’s blind spots, who oppose its many complicities, who resist its production of norms and its participation in spatial violence, and who champion a more open, more equal built environment.
*Please note, current GSAPP students and recent graduates are not eligible as they cannot be paid by the university for any of these roles until 18 months after graduation.
Editorial Rates for contributing editors and editors at large
Editing: $200 per piece
Managing: $1100 for contributing editor/$500 for editor at large, per year
Recruiting: $100 for every commissioned piece that lands in our pages
Writing: $400 per essay