To assure our readers we are being responsible editors and to increase the transparency of our editorial process as a whole, each poem published by LEVELER is accompanied by a brief note on our selection entitled levelheaded. Here we look at what a poem conveys and how. In no way do we claim levelheaded is a final, authoritative take on any corresponding poem. Instead, we hope to provide readers with another way into the poem, thereby encouraging closer readings, and ultimately, challenges to our findings.

Poem selections for LEVELER are made on a roughly bimonthly basis. Our initial reading of a batch of submissions is done individually and continually. Every couple of months, we meet in person to read through our most recent batch for a second time. In these bimonthly meetings, we move through every poem individually, paying particular attention to each poem’s goals and methods. While our process is necessarily subjective, we make a point not to let our limited predispositions dictate what we publish. Most of our final editorial decisions are made in our bimonthly meetings, though stalemates do occur, postponing some decisions. If our editorial tastes differ, we hope the disparity ultimately strengthens our selections (though, undoubtedly, quality work slips through our system). After we have selected poems and notified submitting poets of our decisions, we divide responsibilities in the writing of levelheadeds, which are written by individual editors and edited collectively. We determine the order in which we will post the poems, and then we present them, without qualm, to you, the reader.

We tweet every time a new poem is up.