''The Gettysburg Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine featuring
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
,
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
,
essays
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...
and reviews. Work appearing in the magazine often is reprinted in "best-of" anthologies and receives awards.
The little magazine "is recognized as one of the country’s premier journals," according to a description at the Web site of the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
. The 2007 ''
U.S. News
''U.S. News & World Report'' (USNWR) is an American media company that publishes news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. It was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper ''U.S. News'' and international-focused ...
'' guide to the best colleges described the review as "recognized as one of the country's best literary journals." According to a Web page of the English Department of the University of Wisconsin Colleges, the Gettysburg Review is considered a "major literary journal in the U.S."
Founded in 1988, the magazine is published by
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...
in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town.
Gettysburg is home to th ...
. Its quarterly issues come out in January, April, July, and October."Masthead" ''The Gettysburgh Review'', Retrieved February 8, 2007
The magazine does not print material which has been published elsewhere. Along with fresh and new short stories, it is open to publishing original poetry, whether short or long, and excerpts from novels. The magazine will occasionally serialize longer fictional works over more than one issue. "Essays can be on virtually any subject, so long as it is treated in a literary fashion — gracefully and in depth," according to the magazine's Web site. Guidelines - Fiction /ref>
''The Gettysburg Review'' is one of the most frequent sources of material for ''
The Best American Essays ''The Best American Essays'' is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States.Robert Atwan (ed.), Adam Gopnick (guest ed.). ''The Best American Essays 2008'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. It was started in 1986 and is ...
'', ''
The Best American Poetry
''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems.
Background
The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...
'', and ''
The Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...
'' series. Other anthologies that have reprinted work originally published in the magazine: ''The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses'', ''The Best Creative Nonfiction'', ''The Best American Mystery Stories'', ''Best New American Voices'', ''Best New Poets'', ''New Stories from the South'', and ''Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards''. Other work has been reprinted in publications such as '' Harpers'' and the ''UTNE Reader.''Gettysburg Review New Pages, Retrieved February 8, 2007
Prominent writers who have appeared in the magazine's pages include
E. L. Doctorow
Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known for his works of historical fiction.
He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included ...
,
Rita Dove
Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the posit ...
,
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...
,
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American novelist and short story writer. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: ''The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and'' The Marriage Plot'' ...
,
Linda Pastan
Linda Pastan (born May 27, 1932, in New York) is an American poet of Jewish background. From 1991 to 1995 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. She is known for writing short poems that address topics like family life, domesticity, motherhood, the fe ...
Donald Hall
Donald Andrew Hall Jr. (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) was an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic. He was the author of over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and includin ...
. Recent writers published in the journal include Gary Fincke,
Robert Gibb
Robert Gibb RSA (28 October 1845 – 11 February 1932) was a Scottish painter who was Keeper of the National Gallery of Scotland from 1895 to 1907 and was Painter and Limner to the King from 1908 until his death. He built his reputation on ...
and Jacob M. Appel.
The periodical has won awards including the Best New Journal award, four Best Journal Design awards from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, and a PEN/Nora Magid Award for Excellence in Editing.
In a 1994 review of the magazine, Ron Tanner wrote that the stories in the 1993 issues were widely varied in style, but "are clearly in the mainstream of contemporary American fiction — you will not find 'experimental' work in ''The Gettysburg Review''."
He also found the stories have a common "concern for character, and an examination of the emotional and
psychological distance Psychological distance is the degree to which people feel removed from a phenomenon. Distance in this case is not limited to the physical surroundings, rather it could also be abstract. Distance can be defined as the separation between the self and ...
one might travel when faced with a problem. ..each compels the character to make a decision, to make an effort, to make a move. Consequently, things happen in these stories. Which is to say that we end in a place very different from the story's beginning. In no resolution of a ''Gettysburg'' story, however, do we find ourselves living Happily Ever After. Life is more complicated than that, these writers assert."Tanner, Ron Gettysburg Review ''Studies in Short Fiction'', Summer, 1994, Retrieved February 8, 2007
The quarterly gets about 6,000 submissions per year and does not solicit work except for occasional reviews. " work hard not to have a regular stable of writers or favored persons of any kind," according to founding editor Peter Stitt. "We are most proud of publishing writers who have never before appeared in a nationally-circulated journal. But we do not actively search through the slush pile for anything but good writing.""Interview with LitJournals / Conducted by Dan Wickett on January 19, 2005" Emerging Writers Forum, Retrieved June 10, 2007
The magazine is supported financially by Gettysburg College, for the most part, although it also receives grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the NEA, along with some revenue from subscriptions.
Appearances in The Best American Mystery Stories series
*
The Best American Mystery Stories
''The Best American Mystery and Suspense'' is an annual anthology of North American mystery and thriller stories. Part of ''The Best American Series'' since 1997, it is published by Empire Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Prior to 2021, its t ...
2008,
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...
, "Doll: A Romance of the Mississippi"
*
The Best American Mystery Stories
''The Best American Mystery and Suspense'' is an annual anthology of North American mystery and thriller stories. Part of ''The Best American Series'' since 1997, it is published by Empire Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Prior to 2021, its t ...
2008,
Kyle Minor
Kyle Minor (born 1976) is an American writer. Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, Minor lived in Ohio and Kentucky before settling in Indiana. He studied writing at Ohio State University, where he was a three-time honoree in ''The Atlantic ...
, "A Day Meant to Do Less"
*
The Best American Mystery Stories
''The Best American Mystery and Suspense'' is an annual anthology of North American mystery and thriller stories. Part of ''The Best American Series'' since 1997, it is published by Empire Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Prior to 2021, its t ...
2006,
Emily Raboteau
Emily Raboteau is an American fiction writer, essayist, and Professor of Creative Writing at the City College of New York.
Early life
Raboteau grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of Princeton professor Albert Raboteau. She received an undergra ...
, "Smile"
*
The Best American Mystery Stories
''The Best American Mystery and Suspense'' is an annual anthology of North American mystery and thriller stories. Part of ''The Best American Series'' since 1997, it is published by Empire Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Prior to 2021, its t ...
2004,
Christopher Coake
Christopher Coake (born November 28, 1971) is an American fiction writer.
Background
Coake is the author of two collections of short stories,''You Would Have Told Me Not To'' (Delphinium Books, 2020), and ''We're in Trouble'' (Harcourt, 2005), for ...
, "All Through the House"
Appearances in The Best American Poetry series
*
The Best American Poetry 2009
''The Best American Poetry 2009'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by poet David Wagoner, guest editor, who made the final selections, and David Lehman
David Lehman (born June 11, 1948The Best American Poetry 2006
''The Best American Poetry 2006'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman (general editor), and poet Billy Collins, guest editor.
The volume received some negative reviews. A review in the '' RATTLE'' by G. Tod ...
*
The Best American Poetry 2000
''The Best American Poetry 2000'' (), a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Rita Dove.
In her introduction, Dove defended the idea that poets should be politically committed: " poets canno ...
*
The Best American Poetry 1999
''The Best American Poetry 1999'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Robert Bly.
Poets and poems included
See also
* 1999 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with informatio ...
*
The Best American Poetry 1998
''The Best American Poetry 1999'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor John Hollander.
Poets and poems included
See also
* 1998 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with inform ...
*
The Best American Poetry 1997
''The Best American Poetry 1997'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor James Tate.
Poets and poems included
See also
* 1997 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with informati ...
The Best American Poetry 1993
''The Best American Poetry 1993'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Louise Glück.
Poets and poems included
See also
* 1993 in poetry
Notes
External links
Web page for contents o ...
*
The Best American Poetry 1990
''The Best American Poetry 1990'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Jorie Graham. The book contains seventy-five poems with a range of Poet, poet-authors from a college freshman to the ...
*
The Best American Poetry 1989
''The Best American Poetry 1989'', a volume in '' The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Donald Hall.
One of the poems Hall selected for this edition was written by his wife,Lee K. Abbott
*
Rita Dove
Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the posit ...
*
Donald Hall
Donald Andrew Hall Jr. (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) was an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic. He was the author of over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and includin ...
* Rebecca McClanahan
*
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentle ...
* Paul Zimmer
Advisory Board:
* Fritz Gaenslen
* Fred Leebron
* Kathryn Rhett
* Jack Ryan
See also
*
List of literary magazines
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...