''Salmagundi'' is a US quarterly periodical, featuring cultural criticism, fiction, and poetry, along with transcripts of symposia and interviews with prominent writers and intellectuals.

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. He ...

, a longtime friend of the publication, referred to it as "simply my favorite little magazine." In ''The Book Wars'', James Atlas writes that ''Salmagundi'' is "perhaps the country's leading journal of intellectual opinion."

History and profile

''Salmagundi'' was founded b
Robert Boyers
in the fall of 1965, using money he earned as a youth, singing at his neighborhood Jewish temple, and at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. Boyers drew inspiration for his quarterly from other "little magazines" of the era, such as ''

Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affiliated Joh ...

'', F.R. Leavis's '' Scrutiny'', and T.S. Eliot's ''Criterion'', among others. The title of the magazine was chosen as a reference to the 19th-century periodical of the same name, published by

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

. In 1969, the magazine moved its headquarters to

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. Histo ...

, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Boyers and his wife, Margarita "Peg" Boyers are both professors in Skidmore's English Department. The magazine celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary in 2015 by publishing three large volumes, featuring "Best Of" selections from ''Salmagundi'''s first five decades. While the magazine has no explicit mission statement, Boyers has often invoked

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

's description of the role served by little magazines in preventing the culture from "being cautious and settled, or merely sociological, or merely pious" and "to make the official representatives of literature a little uneasy." ''Salmagundi'''s editors take pride in continually finding "ways to say NO and THINK AGAIN to the largely settled views of our own enlightened readership."

Christopher Lasch Robert Christopher Lasch (June 1, 1932 – February 14, 1994) was an American historian, moralist and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester. He sought to use history to demonstrate what he saw as the pervasiven ...

, a frequent contributor to the ''Salmagundi'' until his death in 1994, observed, in 1975, that the magazine "often criticized leftist clichés from a point of view sympathetic to the underlying objectives of the left." Lasch further noted that ''Salmagundi'' reliably opposed "fake radicalism," "genteel academicism" and "estheticism," even as it recognized "the precarious position of intellectual culture in the modern world." One of the things that sets ''Salmagundi'' apart from other literary magazines is its commitment to hosting (and transcribing, for publication) ambitious symposia, featuring lively debate among prominent scholars and writers. Past symposia have included figures such as,

Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic ...

Martha Nussbaum Martha Craven Nussbaum (; born May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philosop ...

Slavoj Zizek Slavoj may refer to: *Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807–1884), Czech teacher, writer, and philosopher *Slavoj Černý (born 1937), Czech former cyclist * Slavoj Žižek (born 1949), Slovenian philosopher See also *Záboj and Slavoj, outdoor sculpture ...

Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appi ...

Orlando Patterson Horace Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race and slavery in the United States and Jamaica, as well as the sociology of development. He is the John C ...

, and many others.

Notable columnists and contributors

Critics and scholars

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the ...

Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Summers Robinson (born November 26, 1943) is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and t ...

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

* James Miller *

Tzvetan Todorov Tzvetan Todorov (; ; bg, Цветан Тодоров; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, whi ...

Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

* William H. Gass *

* Adam Phillips *

Phillip Lopate Phillip Lopate (born 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate. Early life Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a BA deg ...

Steve Fraser Steven Howard "Steve" Fraser (born March 23, 1958) is an American Greco-Roman wrestler and coach. He was the 1984 Olympic Games gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, in the 90 kg weight class. Fraser's gold medal was the first ever for the Un ...

* Daniel Swift *

Siri Hustvedt Siri Hustvedt (born February 19, 1955) is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, seven novels, two books of essays, and several works of non-fiction. Her books include ''The Blindfold'' (1992), ''The Ench ...

*George Scialabba

Novelists

Russell Banks Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usua ...

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 ...

J.M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great b ...

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

Darryl Pinckney Darryl Pinckney (born 1953 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American novelist, playwright, and essayist. Early life Pinckney grew up in a middle-class African-American family in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attended local public schools. H ...

Steve Stern Steve J. Stern (born 1947) is an author from Memphis, Tennessee. Much of his work draws inspiration from Yiddish folklore. Biography Stern was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1947, the son of a grocer. He left Memphis in the 1960s to attend ...

* Mary Gordon *

Norman Manea Norman Manea (; born July 19, 1936), is a Romanian Jewish writer and author of short fiction, novels, and essays about the Holocaust, daily life in a communist state, and exile. He lives in the United States, where he is a Professor and writer ...

Mary Gaitskill Mary Gaitskill (born November 11, 1954) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Her work has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Esquire'', ''The Best American Short Stories'' (1993, 2006, 2012, 2020), and ...

Rick Moody Hiram Frederick Moody III (born October 18, 1961) is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel ''The Ice Storm'', a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 19 ...

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 ...

* Binnie Kirschenbaum *

Jim Shepard Jim Shepard (born 1956) is an American novelist and short story writer, who teaches creative writing and film at Williams College. Biography Shepard was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He received a B.A. at Trinity College in 1978 and an MF ...

Howard Norman Howard A. Norman (born 1949), is an American writer and educator. Most of his short stories and novels are set in Canada's Maritime Provinces. He has written several translations of Algonquin, Cree, and Inuit folklore. His books have been tra ...

Poets

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the '' Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most o ...

Frank Bidart Frank Bidart (born May 27, 1939) is an American academic and poet, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Biography Bidart is a native of California and considered a career in acting or directing when he was young. In 1957, he began to s ...

Richard Howard Richard Joseph Howard (October 13, 1929 – March 31, 2022; adopted as Richard Joseph Orwitz) was an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a graduate of Columbia University, w ...

Marie Howe Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tr ...

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' ...

Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; born April 22, 1943) is an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". H ...

Carolyn Forché Carolyn Forché (born April 28, 1950) is an American poet, editor, professor, translator, and human rights advocate. She has received many awards for her literary work. Biography Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Michael Joseph and Louis ...

Honor Moore Honor Moore is an American writer of poetry, creative nonfiction and plays. Biography She is the daughter of Jenny Moore and of Bishop Paul Moore. She is the author of three collections of poems: ''Red Shoes'', ''Darling'', and ''Memoir''; two ...

* Carl Dennis * Campbell McGrath *

Vijay Seshadri Vijay Seshadri (born 13 February 1954) is an American, Brooklyn, New York–based poet, essayist and literary critic. Vijay won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, for ''3 Sections''. Early life Vijay's parents immigrated to the United States ...

* Rosanna Warren

Notable essays, poetry, and fiction

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...

's "Beginnings" (1966) *

Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov (March 1, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. He was twice Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. For ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977) ...

's "First Snow" (#22 - 23, 1973) *

's "Pieces" and "Incipience" (#22 - 23, 1973) *

's "History" and "Man and Woman" (#22 - 23, 1973) *

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the lit ...

's "The Nature of A Mirror" (#22 - 23, 1973) *

's "Pomegranate" (#22 - 23, 1973) * Leslie H. Farber's "Lying on the Couch" (1975) *

's "Ozymandias II" and "Ginkgoes in Fall" (#28, 1975) *

's "Epilogue" (#37, 1977) *

's "Question You Must Learn to Live Past" and "What Was The Thought?" (#50 - 51, 1980–81) *

's "First Goodbye" (#50 - 51, 1980–81) * William H. Gass's "The Death of the Author" (1984) *

's "Our Homeland, the Text" (1985) *

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

's "Place, Pastness, Poems: A Tryptch" (1986) * Martin Jay's "The Descent of de Man" (1988) *

's "Counting by Tens" (1989) *

's "Shiva And Parvati Hiding In The Rain" (#85 - 86, 1990) *

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

's "Seeing Things" (#88 - 89, 1990–91) *

Natalia Ginzburg Natalia Ginzburg (, ; ; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, f ...

's "My Psychoanalysis" (1991) '' rans. from Italian by Lynne Sharon Schwartz' *

Jed Perl Jed Perl (born 1951) is an American art critic and author in New York City. He was a longtime staff of ''The New Republic''. Career Jed Perl initially trained as a painter. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College and also studied at th ...

's "Abstract Questions" (1992) *

Sharon Olds Sharon Olds (born November 12, 1942) is an American poet. Olds won the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

's "Parent Visiting Day" and "His Smell" and "The Urn" and "To My Father" (#93, 1992) *

's "Emerging from Censorship" (1993) *

's "My Last Hustler" (#100, 1993) * James Miller's "Foucault's Politics in Biographical Perspective" (1993) *

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah w ...

's "Ancestral Voices" (1994) *

Roger Shattuck Roger Whitney Shattuck (August 20, 1923 in Manhattan, New York – December 8, 2005 in Lincoln, Vermont) was an American writer best known for his books on French literature, French art, art, and French classical music, music of the twentieth centu ...

's "Second Thoughts on a Wooden Horse" (1995) *

's "The Touvier Trial" (1995) '' rans. from French by John Anzalone' *

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...

's "What's Left of the Center?" (1996) * Carl Dennis's "The God Who Loves You" (#111, 1996) *

's "Realism" (#114 - 115, 1997) '' his was eventually published as a chapter in Coetzee's acclaimed novel,'' Elizabeth Costello''' *

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...

's "Buried" (#113, 1997) * Charles Molesworth's "From Collage to Combine: Rauschenberg and Visual Culture" (1998) *

David Rieff David Rieff (; born September 28, 1952) is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism. Biography Rieff is the only child of Susan Sontag, who w ...

's "In Rwanda: The Crisis of Humanitarianism" (1998) *

's "The Aesthetics of Fear" (1998) *

's "The Fate of Ideas: Moses" (1999) * Carl Dennis's "Progress" (#121 - 122, 1999) *

's "Luggage" and "Hammer" (#121 - 122, 1999) *

C.K. Williams Charles Kenneth "C. K." Williams (November 4, 1936 – September 20, 2015) was an American poet, critic and translator. Williams won many poetry awards. ''Flesh and Blood'' won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1987. ''Repair'' (1999) won ...

's "The Nail" (#121 - 122, 1999) *

's "Porch Steps" and "Song" (#124 - 125, 1999-2000) *

's "Nocturne" (#126 - 127, 2000) *

's "Pre-Existing Forms: We Fill Them and When We Fill Them We Change Them and Are Changed" (2000) * Carl Dennis's "The Photographer" (#135 - 136, 2002) *

's "Knowing When To Stop" (#135 - 136, 2002) *

's "Inculcations" (#137 - 138, 2003) *

's "Death Bed" and "Fisherman" (#148 - 149, 2005–06) *

's "Violetta, 2000" (#144 - 145, 2004–05) *

's "Wallace Stevens" (#146 - 147, 2005) *

's "Winter Spring Summer Fall" and "God's Catastrophe in Our Time" (#148 - 149, 2005–06) *

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

's "The Aerodrome" (#148 - 149, 2005–06) *

's "Work Song" (#148 - 149, 2005–06) * Adam Phillips's "On What is Fundamental" (2009) *

's "How Do You End an Essay?" (2010) *

's "The Invisible" (#166 - 167, 2010) *

's "The Real Story" (2012)

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Salmagundi'' official site
Literary magazines published in the United States Quarterly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1965 Magazines published in New York (state) Skidmore College Hijacked journals