Does Shenandoah prefer that work be accompanied by a cover letter? If so, what is considered appropriate for such a letter?
Yes, we like cover letters, because they become useful once a manuscript moves into serious consideration. Since a cover letter is a pretty basic business communication, we recommend a tone appropriate to business. If you’ve been published before, mention three or four places. We don’t mind hearing about a couple of awards or fellowships which might be recognizable to us. Where you live, what work you do and where you studied are also pertinent. It is worth remembering that no cover letter will boost the chances of a poem or story, while a hyperbolic or self-congratulatory letter might conceivably damage the reception a work would receive. We don’t want to see catalogues of publications, vitas, lists of former teachers, quotations from other writers about your work, personal photographs, flyers advertising books or readings or explanations of the submitted work.
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