The Atlantic Monthly has been in business for 150 years. The magazine was launched in 1857, has been through a succession of owners, and has changed its size, appearance, and number of its readers (nearly 1.5 million now), but not its basic premise: "that breaking news was not always worth paying attention to, and in fact could distract the public from important stories that needed to be told—and that took more time to tell." [http://www.theatlantic.com/ideastour/] For many of this publication's prestigious and award-winning years, C. Michael Curtis has been part of what has made this magazine so admired by its readers and sought by authors.
C. Michael Curtis and Elizabeth Cox were recent guests at the University of Central Oklahoma. They shared their knowledge and insight openly and genuinely with those of us who came to listen. Mr. Curtis told us that The Atlantic Monthly receives approximately 12,000 stories a year, of which 600 to 700 are publishable. But the magazine is limited to only publishing a few.
If you're an author hoping for publication in this magazine, don't let the numbers chase you away. According to Curtis, one thing and editor does first when reading a submission is to, "attend to dialogue. It's a quick test for quality." Dialogue must sound like real dialogue. The author must be able to turn a good phrase, and know how to punctuate properly, and that includes the use of the semi-colon.
Mr. Curtis is a gracious man, and advises any author who submits his or her work, no matter the publication, to show civility and true interest in being a good writer.
If you'd like to learn more about C. Michael Curtis and The Atlantic Monthly, check out some of these Web pages:
http://www.theatlantic.com/
http://www.theatlantic.com/about/people/cmcbio.htm
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=18617
http://creativenonfiction.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=67296
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