''River Styx'' is a literary journal produced in St. Louis, Missouri, and published two times a year by the Big River Association. It is the oldest literary journal in St. Louis, Missouri.

Early years

''River Styx'' was started in St Louis, Missouri in 1975 after poetry readings and musical sessions among enthusiasts in the late 1960s. At the apartment of Danny Spell, poets read their work and the work of poets they liked. These sessions evolved into the ''River Styx Poets'' radio program. Regulars on the show included Michael Castro, Jan Castro, Danny Spell, and Marvin Hohman. The radio program lasted from 1970–1973. ''River Styx'' magazine was founded in 1975 with Michael Castro and Jan Castro as editors. The magazine's approach was multicultural, as were the reading series, which began at the same time, and the River Styx PM series, which began in 1981. Early contributors to the magazine included David Meltzer, Jerome Rothenberg, Maurice Kenny, Joy Harjo, Terri McMillan, and Quincy Troupe. In the 1980s and 1990s Troupe joined the editing team. The magazine included interviews with

Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ' ...

, John Barth,

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

, and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

. ''River Styx'' magazine is produced by the literary organization River Styx (originally Big River Association), incorporated as a not for profit organization in 1975 with Michael Castro as president. The organization also produces readings. The readings helped build the magazine's reputation. They were directed by Michael Castro for over twenty years, with one year stints by Jan Castro, Peter Carlos, Ann Haubrich, and Jan Rothschild. These readings included music by

Willie Mae Ford Smith Willie Mae Ford Smith (June 23, 1904 – February 2, 1994) was an American musician and Evangelism, Christian evangelist instrumental in the development and spread of gospel music in the United States. She grew up singing with her family, joinin ...

with

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, the

World Saxophone Quartet The World Saxophone Quartet is an American jazz ensemble founded in 1977, incorporating elements of free jazz, R&B, funk and South African jazz into their music. The original members were Julius Hemphill (alto and soprano saxophone, flute), ...

, and St. Louis Symphony musicians Catherine Lehr, Manuel Ramos, and Rich O'Donnell. Local artists from St. Louis attended, as did visiting writers such as Breyten Breytenbach,

Dennis Brutus Dennis Vincent Brutus (28 November 1924 – 26 December 2009) was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games due to its racial policy of apartheid. ...

Carolyn Forche Carolyn is a female given name, a variant of Caroline. Other spellings include Karolyn, Carolyne, Carolynn or Carolynne. Caroline itself is one of the feminine forms of Charles. List of Notable People *Carolyn Bennett (born 1950), Canadian pol ...

W.S. Merwin William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thema ...

, Adrienne Rich,

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem ''Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcot ...

. Special editions by Arthur Brown and

William H. Gass William Howard Gass (July 30, 1924 – December 6, 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven vol ...

were produced in the 1980s. In 1995 Richard Newman became editor-in-chief. After Michael Castro left the organization in 2000, Newman became director of the River Styx Poetry Series. In 1986 Jan Castro received the Editors Award for ''River Styx'' from CCLM (Coordinating Council for Literary Magazines, now CLMP).

21st Century River Styx

The magazine devotes several pages per issue to artists, which have included Michael Corr, Alejandro Romero, Lynda Frese, Emmet Gowan, John Slaughter, Patte Loper, Birney Imes, Virginia Beahan,

Laura McPhee Laura McPhee (born 1958) is an American photographer known for making detailed large-format photographs of the cultural landscape—images which raise questions about human impacts on the environment and the nature of our complex and contested re ...

, Deborah Luster, Dana Moore, Benedict Fernandez, and Frank Shaw. The magazine sponsors two contests each year for

microfiction Flash fiction is a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as " twitterature"); ...

and poetry. Past judges for the International Poetry Contest have included Billy Collins, Philip Levine, Maxine Kumin, and

Molly Peacock Molly Peacock (born Buffalo, New York 1947) is an American-Canadian poet, essayist, biographer and speaker, whose multi-genre literary life also includes memoir, short fiction, and a one-woman show. Career Peacock's latest book is Flower Diary ...

. In the fall of 2012, the River Styx reading series moved its venue. A ''Best of River Styx'' special edition was published in 2000 to mark the organization's twenty-fifth anniversary. It included poetry, interviews, photographs from readings by River Styx archivist Paul Neuenkirk, and a record insert with highlights from events.

Awards

The magazine has won several Stanley Hanks Prizes, awards from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines, as well as grants and support from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Missouri Arts Council Since the 1960s, the Missouri Arts Council has helped bring the arts to all the people of the state. By providing grants to large and small communities, public and private schools, and artists and arts programs, the Missouri Arts Council makes qual ...

, Regional Arts Commission, Missouri Humanities Council, and Arts and Education Council. Its poems and stories have appeared in ''Best American Poetry'' and ''New Stories from the South'' anthologies, ''Best New Poets'', and ''The Pushcart Prizes: Best of the Small Presses''.

Contributors

The magazine has published work by

Jacob M. Appel Jacob M. Appel (born February 21, 1973) is an American author, poet, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social critic.Nagamatsu, Sequoia "A Few Words with the Ubiquitous Jacob M. Appel" ''Prince Mincer'' Journal http://primemincer.com/ confirmed ...

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

, Richard Burgin,

Amy Clampitt Amy Clampitt (June 15, 1920 – September 10, 1994) was an American poet and author. Life Clampitt was born on June 15, 1920, of Quaker parents, and brought up in New Providence, Iowa. In the American Academy of Arts and Letters and at nearby Gr ...

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...

, Rita Dove,

Stephen Dunn Stephen Elliot Dunn (June 24, 1939June 24, 2021) was an American poet and educator who authored twenty-one collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2001 collection, ''Different Hours,'' and received an Academy Award i ...

Clayton Eshleman Clayton Eshleman (June 1, 1935 – January 29/30, 2021) was an American poet, translator, and editor, noted in particular for his translations of César Vallejo and his studies of cave painting and the Paleolithic imagination. Eshleman's work has ...

, Martín Espada,

Albert Goldbarth Albert Goldbarth (born January 31, 1948) is an American poet. He has won the National Book Critics Circle award for "Saving Lives" (2001) and "Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology" (1991), the only poet to receive the honor two times. He also won the Mar ...

, Donald Hall, Robert Hass,

John Hollander John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter C ...

Jane Ellen Ibur Jane Ellen Ibur (born 1950) is an American poet and arts educator living in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. She has been chosen to serve as the Poet Laureate for St. Louis, MO. She runs the program Poets and Writers Ink for young writers i ...

, Rodney Jones, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ted Kooser, Maxine Kumin,

Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal great-grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted ...

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation ...

Thylias Moss Thylias Moss (born February 27, 1954, in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American poet, writer, experimental filmmaker, sound artist and playwright of African Americans, African-American, Native Americans in the United States, Native American, and Europea ...

, Howard Nemerov, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, Molly Peacock, Carl Phillips, Adrienne Rich, Jerome Rothenberg,

Alan Shapiro Alan Richard Shapiro (born February 18, 1952 in Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the ...

Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...

, Charles Simic,

George Singleton George Singleton is a Southern author who has written eight collections of short stories, two novels, and an instructional book on writing fiction. He was born in Anaheim, California and raised in Greenwood, South Carolina. Singleton graduated ...

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...

, William Stafford,

May Swenson Anna Thilda May "May" Swenson (May 28, 1913 – December 4, 1989) was an American poet and playwright. Harold Bloom considered her one of the most important and original poets of the 20th century. The first child of Margaret and Dan Arthur Sw ...

Arthur Sze Arthur Sze (; ; born December 1, 1950) is an American poet, translator, and professor. Since 1972, he has published ten collections of poetry. Sze's ninth collection ''Compass Rose'' (2014) was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Sz ...

, Wisława Szymborska, Mona Van Duyn, and Derek Walcott.

Staff

*Editor: Jason Lee Brown *Managing Editor: Shanie Latham *Founding Editor: Michael Castro *Editor Emeritus: Richard Newman *Contributing Editors: Kelli Allen, Noh Anothai, Adam Berner, Christina Chady, R.M. Cymber, Matthew Freeman, Alex Streiff, Kathy Tun

Annual Microfiction Contest

The magazine holds an annual microfiction (500 words or less) contest with a first prize of $1,000, and the top three stories published in a special issue.

References

{{Reflist

External links

River Styx MagazineRiver Styx staff, local writers anticipate magazine's 100th issue
1975 establishments in Missouri Biannual magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1975 Magazines published in St. Louis Poetry magazines published in the United States