Structure and Organization

I. Editorial Organization
Executive Editorial Board (5 members)
1) 1 Managing Editor. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt will be responsible for managing the business of the anthology, sending out calls for submissions, collecting submissions and forwarding them for initial review to the Guild Editorial Board, as well as managing the printing process and working with the Editorial Advisor and three Editors. Final determination concerning the content, layout, and arrangement of the anthology rests with the Executive Editorial Board under the leadership of the Managing Editor.
2) 3 Editors, one of whom will be a member of the Appalachian Writers Guild (AWG), under the leadership of the Managing Editor, will be responsible for all final editorial decisions, for assisting with sending out calls for submissions, making final literary selections and approving copy.
3) 1 Editorial Advisors, the Shepherd University Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence (AHWIR), selected each year to receive the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award and to choose the winners of the WV Fiction Awards. The Editorial Advisor will offer suggestions concerning the anthology process and the finished product. The AHWIR will enhance the credibility and credentials of the anthology, as well as offer a story, poem, essay, or item, as appropriate, for inclusion in the anthology; the work of the AHWIR will be the focus of a critical essay offering an overview of his/her canon.

2) AWG Reviewers are selected and approved by the Executive Editorial Board. The AWG members will be responsible for receiving the submissions from the Executive Managing Editor, reading and evaluating submissions, making judgments, offering reviews and responses where appropriate, and making recommendations for poetry, prose, and other literary inclusions in the anthology--these are submitted to the Executive Editorial Board for final judgment, approval, and arrangement in the anthology. The Executive Editorial Board has final authority over the anthology, which is supported by the Shepherd University Foundation and the WV Center for the Book.

II. Focus, Title, and Time-line of Anthology:
The Anthology of Appalachian Writers will not merely be a venue for publication of new Appalachian writers, though that is its principal mission; it also will provide a collection of literature, scholarship, fiction, poetry, and photographic art that will contribute to an understanding and appreciation of the region and will offer encouragement to those Appalachian writers and artists who associate themselves and their work with the region and whose work reflects the traditions, cultural characteristics, and heritage of Appalachia as it is today and was in the past.

The anthology will contain the following:
1) Unpublished poetry, short fiction, and memoir selections by contemporary regional writers;
2) 1 or 2 heritage writers whose work lies within the realm of public domain;
3) Short introductory essays of the heritage writers included as heritage writers and selected by managing and senior editors;
4) A contribution each year from the canon of the featured Shepherd University Appalachian Heritage WIR (this writer has selected winners and offered finalists critiques of the WV Fiction Competition);
5) An essay by a published Appalachian scholar, exploring the work of the AHWIR and recipient of the AH Writers Award;
6) Regional photographs and visuals where appropriate.

The name of the anthology will be Anthology of Appalachian Writers, thus keeping the association with the Appalachian Heritage WIR and Writers Project at Shepherd University (see http://www.shepherd.edu/ahwirweb/). A website will be constructed to link from the AHWIR main page, reflecting this association. This website will have details about submissions, similar to the WV Fiction Writers Competition page also linked to the AHWIR page, and will have a "forum" mechanism for discussion of submissions among writers and editors.

A time-line will be established by the Managing Editor, Senior Editors, and Senior Editorial Advisors, congruent with the Fiction Competition and AHWIR Program, in order to facilitate a workable and efficient process for publication of the anthology.

III. Copyright
Writers will retain copyright of all works anthologized in the collection. Contributors will sign authors' agreement authorizing the publication of their works. The text is copyrighted under The Library of Congress continuous volume category, with ISSN: 1946-3103. Each year, a copy of the volume is sent to the Library of congress for recording; the ISSN number does not have to be refilled.

IV. Cost and Fiscal Responsibilities:
The estimated cost of a first run by Edwards Brothers Printing Company will be between $2,500 and $3,000. Retail price of the book will be $20; wholesale, $12. Proceeds from sales will go to the Appalachian Studies Program of Shepherd University.

V. Editing and Publishing Time-Line
*May 15: Calls for Submission
*October 15: Deadline for Submissions
November 1: Deadline for AWG Reviewers' Input
December 1 Editorial Decisions Completed and Releases Mailed to Authors and Photographers
January 15: Deadline for Senior Editorial and Senior Advisory Input; Releases Mailed to Authors
February 15: Copy Ready Draft Completed for Printer
March 15: Publisher Finishes First Run, Distribution to Writers
October 1: Official Public Release and Book Signings at AHWIR Event

*During the period between calls for submission and submission deadline, poetry and fiction selections will be circulated "blindly" among the AWG for their evaluation, input, suggestions, revision suggestions, etc.