As a nod to our upcoming ten-year anniversary, what better way to celebrate the occasion than to share the journeys of contributors, editors, readers, and interns who are our Expo Family? Within this blog series, folks from our Expo Fam have been invited to share how they got involved with the journal, as well as how it has influenced their work.
We view this series as a time capsule for the impact and growth that has taken place at Exposition Review. We hope these personal reflections can inspire others to read, write, and learn more about what our journal has to offer.
Our second well-deserved Expo Story stars Dave Gregory who, in addition to serving as Fiction Co-Editor for Exposition Review, has been featured in other journals for his short fiction and started his own literary magazine. His journey with Expo began by finding a call for readers on what was then known as Twitter. He was working with many journals at the time and considered not working with Expo because of how busy he was, but he is glad he did after all!
A Place to Call Home
Having spent time working on other journals before Exposition Review, Dave felt a lingering feeling of disconnectedness: less interaction with editors and peers, very little activity on social media, and wide gaps between submission periods that fostered little productivity. But everything seemed to come together for Dave after finding a home in Expo:
“I found the staff at Expo to be the most passionate, intelligent, and vocal literary enthusiasts I’d encountered in the online writing community and I was in awe of every single one of them.”
Soon enough, Dave was asked to become an associate editor, an opportunity distinct from his other experiences with journals. Exposition Review was not just a community, but family.
Expo Impact
One of the most personal ways Expo impacted Dave was during the COVID-19 pandemic. With little to no contact with the outside world, the Expo Fam became a hub to socialize, share writing with one another, support each other via Zoom, etc.
“Although I’ve never met a single person from the Expo team in real life, during that time they were closer to me than anyone on the planet (excluding my wife plus a handful of family members and old friends)—and they still are.”
In a professional and creative sense, Dave ascribes his confidence to his time working with Exposition Review. He learned how to trust his instincts when offering feedback for early submissions—using fewer starters like “I’m no expert but …” and “Perhaps I’m not the best one to judge …” He also mentions how much of the art, both visual and literary, has resonated, moved, and inspired him.
It’s always difficult to choose a “best moment” or highlight of an overall wonderful experience, but Dave has a clear idea. An exciting part of reading for Exposition Review means the possibility of receiving an invitation to become an Associate Editor. Dave says three months into his time with Expo, he was chosen and gladly accepted his new role. Part of being an associate editor is having a direct say during in-consideration meetings, which help determine the acceptance or declination of annual issue submissions. Dave makes it clear that the responsibility and importance of being an editor for Exposition Review would make any individual proud to have such a title.
The journal has without a doubt impacted Dave, but how has Dave impacted Expo? One of his strengths is how many submissions he reads each season, whittling down the number of submissions for section editors and co-editors-in-chief. Dave is never afraid to offer his thoughts on a piece, always leaving insightful and direct feedback. He is firm in his taste and stands ground on his opinions, which is often what a successful team needs to maintain a variety of perspectives. A self-aware Dave states:
“Someone has to make the difficult choices about what to decline and what to elevate to the next level, and I’ve never been afraid to weigh in on that matter. I like to think my directness is still appreciated.”
When asked how Exposition Review supports emerging writers and the development of new voices in literature, Dave doesn’t hold back:
“Everything that Expo does supports emerging writers and helps develop new voices. We provide a multi-genre forum so that writers and artists of any genre that can be electronically reproduced have a venue to submit their work. We decide to accept publication based on the quality of writing, not publication history, so newer writers stand just as good a chance of publication as established writers. We produce a podcast to promote and further explore the work we publish. We provide feedback to a sizable portion of those who submit and, from time to time, we work with writers whose pieces we have declined but we still want to improve their chances of finding publication elsewhere. We take on interns so they can learn the ins and outs of the online publication industry. We champion our authors on social media.”
Turning the Page
When he isn’t working with Exposition Review, Dave is also working on his own literary journal Doric Literary. Expo is truly a team effort, meaning there might be twenty people weighing in on the decision to publish a single piece. At Doric Literary, Dave says he has the humbling but exciting luxury to receive a piece, read it immediately, and offer publication later that day. In the future, he would like to publish a collection of his own short fiction.
If you aren’t considering submitting or becoming part of the Expo Fam already, Dave encourages you to make the commitment and dive right in. For the possible contributors who remain apprehensive about submitting, he states that for the lucky ones whose work advances through the process:
“You can expect thorough feedback, thoughtful edits, and a team eager to see your work take on its best form.”
Biography
Dave Gregory is a Canadian writer, a retired sailor, and an active gardener. He was the featured author on the Short Story Today podcast, episode #88. He is the editor of Doric Literary and is currently a fiction co-editor at Exposition Review. He can be found on Twitter and Bluesky @CourtlandAvenue.