''The New Criterion'' is a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

–based monthly

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Roger Kimball (editor and publisher) and

James Panero James S. Panero (born December 15, 1975) is an American cultural critic and the executive editor of ''The New Criterion,'' a conservative culture journal. Early life Panero was born in New York City, and grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhatta ...

(executive editor). It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books. It was founded in 1982 by

Hilton Kramer Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor's degree in English; Col ...

, former art critic for ''The New York Times'', and Samuel Lipman, a pianist and music critic. The name is a reference to ''

The Criterion ''The Criterion'' was a British literary magazine published from October 1922 to January 1939. ''The Criterion'' (or the ''Criterion'') was, for most of its run, a quarterly journal, although for a period in 1927–28 it was published monthly. It ...

'', a British literary magazine edited by T. S. Eliot from 1922 to 1939. The magazine describes itself as a "monthly review of the arts and intellectual life ... at the forefront both of championing what is best and most humanely vital in our cultural inheritance and in exposing what is mendacious, corrosive, and spurious." It evinces an artistic

classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

and political

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

that are rare among other publications of its type. It regularly publishes "special pamphlets", or compilations of published material organized into themes. Some past examples have been ''Corrupt Humanitarianism''; ''Religion, Manners, and Morals in the U.S. and Great Britain''; and ''Reflections on Anti-Americanism''. Since 1999, ''The New Criterion'' has been running the New Criterion Poetry Prize, a poetry contest with a cash prize. In 2004, ''The New Criterion'' contributors began publishing a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

, initially named ArmaVirumque, and later renamed to Dispatch.

Origin

''The New Criterion'' was founded in 1982 by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' art critic

. He cited his reasons for leaving the paper to start ''The New Criterion'' as "the disgusting and deleterious doctrines with which the most popular of our Reviews disgraces its pages", as well as "the dishonesties and hypocrisies and disfiguring ideologies that nowadays afflict the criticism of the arts, hichare deeply rooted in both our commercial and our academic culture." He went on to say: "It is therefore all the more urgent that a dissenting critical voice be heard, and it is for the purpose of providing such a voice that ''The New Criterion'' has been created." Kramer's decision to leave ''The New York Times'', where he had been the newspaper's chief art critic, and to start a magazine devoted to ideas and the arts "surprised a lot of people and was a statement in itself", according to Erich Eichmann. Contributors to the journal have included Mark Steyn, Roger Scruton,

David Pryce-Jones David Eugene Henry Pryce-Jones (born 15 February 1936) is a British conservative author and commentator. Early life Pryce-Jones was born on 15 February 1936, in Vienna, Austria. He was educated at Eton and earned a degree in history at Magdale ...

Theodore Dalrymple Anthony Malcolm Daniels (born 11 October 1949), also known by the pen name Theodore Dalrymple (), is a conservative English cultural critic, prison physician and psychiatrist. He worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in ...

, Alexander McCall Smith, Penelope Fitzgerald, and

Jay Nordlinger Jay Nordlinger (born November 21, 1963) is an American journalist. He is a senior editor of ''National Review'', and a book fellow of the National Review Institute. He is also a music critic for ''The New Criterion'' and ''The Conservative''. In ...

. In its first issue, dated September 1982, the magazine set out "to speak plainly and vigorously about the problems that beset the life of the artists and the life of the mind in our society" while resisting "a more general cultural drift" that had in many cases, "condemned true seriousness to a fugitive existence".Shapiro, Gary.
Twenty-Five Years of Arts and Ideas
', ''New York Sun'', September 8, 2006

Reception

According to the conservative publication ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', for a quarter of a century ''The New Criterion'' "has helped its readers distinguish achievement from failure in painting, music, dance, literature, theater, and other arts. The magazine, whose circulation is 6,500, has taken a leading role in the culture wars, publishing articles whose titles are an intellectual call to arms."Shapiro, Gary.
Twenty-Five Years of Arts and Ideas
', ''New York Sun'', September 8, 2006

Contributors

Since the magazine's founding, many writers, poets, academics, commentators, and politicians – mostly drawn from the conservative end of the political spectrum – have written for it. Contributors include: *

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...

* Jeremy Black * Robert Bork *

William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...

Douglas Carswell John Douglas Wilson Carswell (born 3 May 1971) is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave and currently serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. ...

Christian Caryl Christian Caryl is an American journalist who is widely published in international politics and foreign affairs. Currently, he is an editor with the Opinions Section of the Washington Post, where he specializes in international topics. Early li ...

Maurice Cowling Maurice John Cowling (6 September 1926 – 24 August 2005) was a British historian and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Early life Cowling was born in West Norwood, South London, son of Reginald Frederick Cowling (1901–1962), a patent agent ...

Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for ''The New York Times'', ''Wall Street Journal'', ...

Franklin Einspruch Franklin Einspruch is an American artist and writer based in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Biography Franklin Einspruch was born in Dallas, Texas. Einspruch completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master ...

Malcolm Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (August 19, 1919 – February 24, 1990) was an American entrepreneur most prominently known as the publisher of ''Forbes'' magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalism ...

* Jonathan Foreman * Simon Heffer *

Gertrude Himmelfarb Gertrude Himmelfarb (August 8, 1922 – December 30, 2019), also known as Bea Kristol, was an American historian. She was a leader of conservative interpretations of history and historiography. She wrote extensively on intellectual history, w ...

* Ayaan Hirsi Ali * Christopher Hitchens * Donald Justice * Donald Kagan *

Frederick Kagan Frederick W. Kagan is an American resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, West Point. Career Both he and his father, Donald Kag ...

* Robert Kagan * Robert D. Kaplan *

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

Julius Krein Julius Krein (born 1986) is an American conservative political writer and editor best known as the founder of the journal ''American Affairs''. Early life and education Krein was raised in Eureka, South Dakota, the son of Gary and Nancy Krein. He ...

* Hugh Lloyd-Jones *

Gérard Louis-Dreyfus Gérard C. Louis-Dreyfus (21 June 1932 – 16 September 2016), also known as William, was a French-American businessman. His net worth was estimated at $3.4 billion by ''Forbes'' in 2006. He was the chairman of Louis Dreyfus Energy Services and ...

Thomas F. Madden Thomas F. Madden (born 10 June 1960) is an American historian, a former Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. A spe ...

Harvey Mansfield Harvey Claflin Mansfield Jr. (born March 21, 1932) is an American political philosopher. He is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1962. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships ...

Rob Messenger Robert Desmond Messenger (born 26 October 1962) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the Electoral district of Burnett. Originally a member of the Queensland branch of the National ...

Kenneth Minogue Kenneth Robert Minogue (September 11, 1930 – June 28, 2013), also known as Ken Minogue, was an Australian academic and political theorist. Long residing in the United Kingdom, Minogue was a prominent part of the intellectual life of British ...

Francis Morrone Francis Morrone (born 12 May 1958) is an American architectural historian of Irish and Italian ancestry, originally from Chicago, known for his work on the built history of New York City. Morrone's essays on architecture have appeared in ''The Wall ...

Gary Saul Morson Gary Saul Morson (born 1948) is an American literary critic and Slavist. He is particularly known for his scholarly work on the great Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Morson is Lawren ...

* Ferdinand Mount *

Harry Mount Henry Francis Mount (born 1971) is a British author and journalist who is editor of ''The Oldie'' magazine and a frequent contributor to the ''Daily Mail'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''. Early life Harry Mount was born in 1971. His father, Ferdin ...

Charles Murray Charles Murray may refer to: Politicians *Charles Murray, 1st Earl of Dunmore (1661–1710), British peer *Charles Murray (author and diplomat) (1806–1895), British author and diplomat *Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore (1841–1907), Scotti ...

* Douglas Murray *

George H. Nash George H. Nash (born April 1, 1945) is an American historian and interpreter of American conservatism. He is a biographer of Herbert Hoover. He is best known for ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945'', which first appeare ...

John Podhoretz John Mordecai Podhoretz (; born April 18, 1961) is an American writer. He is the editor of ''Commentary'' magazine, a columnist for the ''New York Post'', the author of several books on politics, and a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald ...

Norman Podhoretz Norman Podhoretz (; born January 16, 1930) is an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator, who identifies his views as " paleo-neoconservative".

Mary Jo Salter Mary Jo Salter (born August 15, 1954) is an American poet, a co-editor of The ''Norton Anthology of Poetry'' and a professor in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University. Life Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was r ...

* Roger Scruton * Lionel Shriver *

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

George Szamuely George Szamuely (born 1954) is a senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute. He was a frequent columnist for the Taki's Top Drawer pages of the ''New York Press''. Szamuely has also written for Antiwar.com, ''Counterpunch'', ''Comme ...

* Kevin D. Williamson * Keith Windschuttle

Awards

Hilton Kramer Fellowship Since its inauguration in 2013, ''The New Criterion''s reader-funded Hilton Kramer Fellowship has been awarded to promising writers with an interest in developing careers as critics. Edmund Burke Annual Gala First awarded in 2012, ''The New Criterion’s'' Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society is given annually to individuals "who have made conspicuous contributions to the defense of civilization." The publication hosts an annual gala honoring recipients of the award. Edmund Burke Award recipients include: *

, former U.S. Secretary of State * Donald Kagan, historian and classicist * Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author and activist *

, political scientist * Philippe de Montebello, former museum director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York *

, military historian, author, and classicist

''New Criterion'' anthologies

* ''Counterpoints: 25 Years of The New Criterion on Culture and the Arts'', edited by Roger Kimball and Hilton Kramer; Ivan R. Dee, 512 pages, (2007). * ''Against the Grain: The New Criterion on Art and Intellect at the End of the 20th Century'', edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball; Ivan R. Dee, 477 pages (1995). * ''The New Criterion Reader: The First Five Years'', edited by Hilton Kramer; Free Press, 429 pages (1988).

''New Criterion'' books

* ''Lengthened Shadows: America and Its Institutions in the Twenty-First Century'', edited by Roger Kimball and Hilton Kramer; Encounter Books, 266 pages (2004). * ''The Survival of Culture: Permanent Values in a Virtual Age'', edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball; Ivan R. Dee, 256 pages (2002). , * ''The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control'' edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball; Ivan R. Dee, 256 pages (1999). , * ''The Future of the European Past'' edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball; Ivan R. Dee, 251 pages (1997). ,

''The New Criterion'' Poetry Prize

Since 2000 the magazine has been awarding its poetry prize to a poet for "a book-length manuscript of poems that pay close attention to form."David Yezzi's post at the ''Armavirumque'' blog
"the New Criterion Poetry Prize", January 29, 2007, Retrieved February 1, 2007 The following poets have won the prize: * 2000: Donald Petersen, ''Early and Late: Selected poems'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001). * 2001:

Adam Kirsch Adam Kirsch (born 1976) is an American poet and literary critic. He is on the seminar faculty of Columbia University's Center for American Studies, and has taught at YIVO. Life and career Kirsch was born in Los Angeles in 1976. He is the son of ...

, ''The Thousand Wells'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002). * 2002: Charles Tomlinson, ''Skywriting and other poems'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003). * 2003:

Deborah Warren Deborah Warren (born 1946, in Boston) is an American writer. She graduated from Harvard University, with a BA in English. She worked as a teacher of Latin and English, and as a software engineering manager. Her work has appeared in ''The New Y ...

, ''Zero Meridian'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004). * 2005:

Geoffrey Brock Geoffrey Brock (born October 19, 1964) is an American poet and translator. Since 2006 he has taught creative writing and literary translation at the University of Arkansas, where he is Distinguished Professor of English. Biography Brock is the ...

, ''Weighing Light'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005). * 2006: Bill Coyle, ''The God of this World to His Prophet'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006). * 2007:

J. Allyn Rosser Jill Allyn Rosser (born 1957 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), who published under J. Allyn Rosser, is a contemporary American poet. Life She grew up in Sparta Township, New Jersey. She graduated from Middlebury College with a B.A. in French and Eng ...

, ''Foiled Again'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007). * 2008: Daniel Brown, ''Taking the Occasion'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2008). * 2009: William Virgil Davis, ''Landscape and Journey'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2009). * 2010: Ashley Anna McHugh, ''Into These Knots'' (Lapham, MD: Ivan R. Dee, 2010). * 2011: D. H. Tracy for ''Janet's Cottage'' (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press, 2012). * 2012: George Green for ''Lord Byron's Foot'' (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press, 2012). * 2013: Dick Allen for ''This Shadowy Place'' (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press, 2014). * 2014:

John Poch John Poch (born 1966 in Erie, Pennsylvania) is an American poet, fiction writer, and critic. Biography John Poch holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Texas. He was the in ...

for ''Fix Quiet'' (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press, 2015). * 2015: Michael Spence for ''Umbilical'' (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press, 2016). * 2016: John Foy for ''Night Vision'' (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press, 2016). * 2017 Moira Egan for ''Synæsthesium'' (New York: New Criterion, 2017). * 2018 Nicholas Friedman for ''Petty Theft'' (New York: New Criterion, 2018). * 2019

Ned Balbo Ned Balbo (born November 19, 1959, Mineola, New York) is an American poet, translator, and essayist. Life Ned Balbo grew up on Long Island, New York. He was raised by Betty and Carmine Balbo, his birth mother's half-sister and her husband. His ...

for ''The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots'' (New York: New Criterion, 2019). * 2020 Bruce Bond for ''Behemoth'' (New York: New Criterion, 2021). * 2021 Nicholas Pierce for ''In Transit'' (forthcoming)

References

External links

*
Dispatch
''The New Criterion'' blog {{DEFAULTSORT:New Criterion 1982 establishments in New York City Visual arts magazines published in the United States Poetry magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Conservative magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1982 Magazines published in New York City