''Epoch'' is a triannual American literary magazine founded in 1947 and published by

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. It has published well-known authors and award-winning work including stories reprinted in ''The Best American Short Stories'' series and poems later included in ''The Best American Poetry'' series.''Epoch'' magazine Web page
Retrieved February 5, 2007 It publishes fiction, poetry, essays, graphic art, and sometimes cartoons and screenplays, but no literary criticism or

book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

s. ''Epoch'' is staffed by faculty and graduate students from the English Department creative writing program, and edited by Michael Koch. ''Epoch'' appears in September, January, and May, with issues generally running 128 to 160 pages.

History

The magazine was established in 1947 by Baxter Hathaway, who had come to the university the year before in order to start a creative writing program. Initially the magazine was a literary quarterly staffed by the English department. A story from the magazine's first volume was reprinted in ''Best American Short Stories'' and all of the fiction from that volume was cited in the anthology. In the 1950s and 1960s, ''Epoch'' featured the first published fiction of

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...

and

Don DeLillo Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, perf ...

, and early stories by

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

Stanley Elkin Stanley Lawrence Elkin (May 11, 1930 – May 31, 1995) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships. Biograp ...

, and Joyce Carol Oates. Some other poets and writers who have appeared in the magazine are Jacob M. Appel, Annie Dillard, Rick DeMarinis,

Jayne Anne Phillips Jayne Anne Phillips (born July 19, 1952) is an American novelist and short story writer who was born in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. Education Phillips graduated from West Virginia University, earning a B.A. in 1974, and later g ...

, Ron Hansen, Andre Dubus,

Amy Hempel Amy Hempel (born December 14, 1951) is an American short story writer and journalist. She teaches creative writing at the Michener Center for Writers. Life Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois. She moved to California at age 16, which is whe ...

, Lee K. Abbott,

Charles Simic Dušan Simić ( sr-cyr, Душан Симић, ; born May 9, 1938), known as Charles Simic, is a Serbian American poet and former co-poetry editor of the ''Paris Review''. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for ''The World Doesn' ...

Leslie Scalapino Leslie Scalapino (July 25, 1944 – May 28, 2010) was an American poet, experimental prose writer, playwright, essayist, and editor, sometimes grouped in with the Language poets, though she felt closely tied to the Beat poets. Writes Hejinian: ...

, Harriet Doerr,

Denis Johnson Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, '' Jesus' Son'' (1992). His most successful novel, ''Tree of Smoke'' (2007) ...

, Ron Hansen,Volume 55, No. 2, 2006

John L'Heureux John Clarke L'Heureux (October 26, 1934 – April 22, 2019) was an American author. L'Heureux was the author of such works of fiction as '' The Miracle'', '' Having Everything'', '' The Shrine at Altamira'', ''Comedians'', '' An Honorable Professio ...

Jorie Graham Jorie Graham (; born May 9, 1950) is an American poet. The Poetry Foundation called Graham "one of the most celebrated poets of the American post-war generation." She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at ...

Micah Perks Micah Perks is an American fiction writer and memoirist. Her three books, ''We Are Gathered Here'' ( St. Martin's Press 1997), ''Pagan Time'' (Counterpoint Press 2001), and ''What Becomes Us''Outpost19 Books2016) examine the utopian impulse in U. ...

, and

Rick Bass Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality * Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and myco ...

.Epoch
Harmon, Joshua, "Epoch's anniversary will be celebrated by noted alumni from its pages", article in ''The Cornell Chronicle'', September 25, 1997, Retrieved February 5, 2007

Awards and recognition

The magazine claims that "all" the major anthologies have reproduced its work, including ''Best American Essays'', ''The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses'', ''Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards'', ''Editor's Choice Awards'', ''Best of the West'', and ''New Stories from the South.'' The periodical also won the first O. Henry Award for best magazine of 1997. Some stories from ''Epoch'' that have been reprinted in anthologies had been picked out of the slush pile by MFA students. According to the ''Cornell Chronicle'', Shannon Ravenel, editor of the anthology ''New Stories from the South: The Year's Best'', said of ''Epoch'', "It's the best. ..''Epoch'' is just consistently excellent." C. Michael Curtis, a senior editor at ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', said he considers ''Epoch'' "one of the top literary magazines in the country in terms of the consistent quality of the writing that appears there." Curtis worked on the magazine staff as a graduate student from 1959 to 1963.

References

External links

* {{Cornell, state=collapsed 1947 establishments in New York (state) Cornell University Literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1947 Magazines published in New York (state) Triannual magazines published in the United States