''The Sewanee Review'' is an American

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 lett ...

established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism.

History

''The Sewanee Review'' was established in 1892 by

William Peterfield Trent William Peterfield Trent, LL.D., D.C.L. (10 November 1862 – 7 December 1939) was an American academic and the author/editor of many books. He was a professor of English literature at Sewanee: The University of the South and Columbia Univers ...

as a magazine "devoted to reviews of leading books and to papers on such topics of general Theology, Philosophy, History, Political Science, and Literature as require further treatment than they receive in specialist publications."Jon Meecham. "Above the moment: The Review at Sewanee still bright at age 100". ''The Chattanooga Times'', October 29, 1992. Telfair Hodgson took on the financial risks for the venture; as its

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edit ...

he handled advertising and accounting, freeing Trent to concentrate on the magazine's literary content. Trent remained

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the review until 1900. After a number of short-term editors, George Herbert Clarke took over in 1920. Clarke was the first editor to publish poetry. Clarke remained editor until 1926 and was succeeded by William S. Knickerbocker, who published the first piece of fiction in the magazine. In 1942, Tudor Seymour Long became editor, with Andrew Nelson Lytle serving as managing editor and Allen Tate as an advisory editor and ''de facto'' editor until 1944. In 1944, when Tate took over as editor, he and Lytle revolutionized the magazine's place in American letters. It focused on

New Criticism New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as ...

, alongside

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

's ''

Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes fiction ...

'' and John Crowe Ransom's '' The Kenyon Review''. Tate also had the magazine redesigned by P. J. Conkwright, who crafted the distinctive blue cover and design. When Tate's editorship ended in 1946, John E. Palmer became editor. He was followed by Monroe K. Spears in 1952 and then Andrew Lytle again in 1965. George Core succeeded Lytle in 1973. After 43 years as editor, Core retired in 2016, and the novelist Adam Ross was appointed to succeed him. Early in Ross's tenure, the cover was redesigned by graphic artists Oliver Munday and

Peter Mendelsund Peter Mendelsund is a novelist, graphic designer known for his book and magazine covers, and the creative director of ''The Atlantic''. Mendelsund has been described by the ''New York Times'' as "one of the top designers at work today" and "the be ...

, the associate art director at

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers i ...

. This marked the magazine's first new cover in over 70 years.

Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry

The review gives the annual Aiken Taylor Award, a prize of $10,000, begun in 1985 by the physician and poet K. P. A. Taylor in honor of his brother

Conrad Aiken Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short ...

. Winners of the award, which has often been given to poets otherwise unaffiliated with the review, have included Howard Nemerov, Richard Wilbur,

Anthony Hecht Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, ...

, W. S. Merwin,

Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poet ...

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ...

, Maxine Kumin, Carolyn Kizer,

X. J. Kennedy X. J. Kennedy (born Joseph Charles Kennedy on August 21, 1929, in Dover, New Jersey) is an American poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and author of children's literature and textbooks on English literature and poetry. He was long known ...

, Eleanor Ross Taylor,

Grace Schulman Grace Schulman (born Grace Jan Waldman, 1935, New York City) is an American poet. She received the 2016 Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American Poetry, awarded by the Poetry Society of America. In 2019, she was inducted as me ...

Henry S. Taylor Henry Splawn Taylor (born June 21, 1942) is an American poet, author of more than 15 books of poems, translation, and nonfiction, and winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Taylor was born in Lincoln, Virginia, in rural Loudoun County, w ...

B. H. Fairchild B.H. Fairchild (born 1942) is an American poet and former college professor. His most recent book is ''An Ordinary Life'' ( W.W. Norton, 2023), and his poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including ''The New Yorker'', ''The Par ...

Anne Stevenson Anne Stevenson (January 3, 1933 – September 14, 2020) was an American-British poet and writer and recipient of a Lannan Literary Award. Life Stevenson was the first daughter of Louise Destler Stevenson and philosopher Charles Stevenson and ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Billy Collins, Christian Wiman, Mary Ruefle, Heather McHugh, and Carl Phillips."Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry"
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References

External links

*
''The Sewanee Review'' on the JHU Press website

''The Sewanee Review''
at

Project MUSE Project MUSE, a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers, is an online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. Project MUSE contains digital humanities and social science content from over 250 univers ...

New Life for a 125-Year-Old Literary Journal
in ''

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 ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Sewanee Review Sewanee: The University of the South Poetry magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1892 Quarterly magazines published in the United States Johns Hopkins University Press academic journals English-language magazines Sewanee, Tennessee Magazines published in Tennessee

History

Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry

See also

References

External links