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Credo:
A Journal Concerning Great Plains Literature
A credo is a statement of conviction or faith. Credo, the journal,
is dedicated to the deep belief in the value of Great Plains literature, that it has
aesthetic merit, that it is equal to critical acumen as much as any other regional
literature, including literature of the South, the East, and the West Coast.
Credo will be a testament to quality Plains literature, its schemes, themes,
and tropes, while it avoids romanticizing the Plains. Credo seeks to define
and understand the peculiarity of Plains literati and its necessary position as an
indispensable national literature.
An Editorial Self-Interview
Q: Why start another little magazine when so many already exist?
A: Credo may fill a void and may provide a forum for writers and scholars who
believe in the plain sense of Plains literature. Now, more than ever, because people are
moving in herds to the cities, and because few scholars and writers have endeavored to
understand the necessity of empty places, a journal that explores the complexities of
Plains literature and showcases it is timely and wise, particularly when the masses will
discover there is no place in the city.
Q: What constitutes the Plains?
A: The Great American Desert, the settlers heading West once called it, long before
they understood its value. The Great Plains, the High Plains, and the North American Prairie
is a territory that includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska,
South and North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, British
Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Q: Who can submit to the journal?
A: Anyone who has had long ties to the territory or whose writing evidences a peculiar
knowledge of its indigenous specifics. A writer need not be a present resident of the
territory; however, the writer should know it and reveal it in ways beyond
the casual acquaintance. The writing ought to be on top of the salient features of the
Plains, not writing from behind the windshield.
Q: What is this journal going to be like?
A: I’d like to have it be something different — neither slick nor sloppy. I miss
how much fun Kayak was all the years it existed — something bohemian, yet full
of wonders, full of strong writing. That’s what I’d like to do here, for as long as I can
do it, for the serious joy of it.
Q: Why?
A: So that people will pay attention, inside and outside the region. Like Cleanth
Brooks and Robert Penn Warren did for Southern literature. A dream and concern that big.
The necessary local becoming national.
Credo will be published two or three times a year. Contributors are invited to
submit poems and prose (short stories, essays, opinions, reviews) not to exceed 4000 words.
The focus of submitted materials should be relative to the Great Plains, and opinions should
serve to define or argue a Plains aesthetic.
Subscription Rates:
Two issues: $8.00
Four issues: $15.00
Six issues: $22.00
Supporters will receive six issues and any press ephemera (chapbooks, broadsides, etc.)
Sponsor: $35.00
Patron: $70.00
Benefactor: $100.00+
Send submissions, subscritpions, donations to
Credo/Sandhills Press
c/o Mark Sanders
5614 Megan Street
Pearland, TX 77581
inquiries: msanders@mail.mainland.cc.tx.us
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