Southwest Review

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southwest Review
DisciplineLiterary journal
LanguageEnglish
Edited byGreg Brownderville
Publication details
Former name(s)
Texas Review
History1915-present
Publisher
FrequencyQuarterly
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Southwest Rev.
Indexing
ISSN0038-4712
JSTORsouthwestreview
Links

The Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1915 as the Texas Review, it is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States.[1] The current editor-in-chief is Greg Brownderville.

The Southwest Review has featured work by many well-known contributors, including: Quentin Bell, Amy Clampitt, Margaret Drabble, Natalia Ginzburg, James Merrill, Iris Murdoch, Howard Nemerov, Edmund White, Maxim Gorky, Cleanth Brooks, and Robert Penn Warren, Ann Harleman, Thomas Beller, Ben Fountain, and Jacob M. Appel.

History[edit]

The Southwest Review was founded as the Texas Review in 1915 by Stark Young, professor at the University of Texas at Austin.[2] When Young left for Amherst College, editorship of the journal passed to Young's colleague, Robert Agder Law, an authority on Shakespeare. The Texas Review languished under Law and seemed doomed when Jay B. Hubbell of Southern Methodist University offered to bring the journal to Dallas. The transfer involved no movement of materials or personnel—Hubbell received only a list of the journal's sixteen subscribers.[2]

At SMU, the Texas Review became the Southwest Review, and embraced a regional identity and focus.[3] Hubbell, assisted by English scholar George Bond and historian Herbert Gambrell, edited the journal from 1924 to 1927. When Hubbell and Bond left SMU in 1927, John McGinnis, an English professor, became editor. Henry Nash Smith, then a young instructor in the English department, would recall that the Southwest Review flourished under McGinnis, who taught a full schedule and contributed regularly to the Dallas Morning News, because he turned the production of the journal into a kind of seminar where senior students and junior colleagues collaborated closely throughout the editorial process. Less than a decade after coming to SMU, the journal had nearly 1000 paid subscribers.[2]

The Great Depression brought various difficulties. Due to financial strain, the Southwest Review was published jointly by SMU and Louisiana State University between 1931 and 1935. The collaboration ended when the LSU side secured funding for their own magazine, the Southern Review. The Southwestern Review survived the decade, largely thanks to its younger staff, including Henry Nash Smith, John Chapman, and Lon Tinkle.[2] A frequent contributor during this era was artist and future director of the Dallas Museum of Art, Jerry Bywaters.

McGinnis continued editing the Southwest Review until 1942. His successor, Donald Day, was had a Ph.D. in English but was on the faculty at SMU. This began a period of non-faculty editorial leadership. Day managed the publication until 1946. It was then edited by Allen Maxwell until 1963. From 1962 until 1982, it was edited by Margaret Hartley.

In 1984, the Southwest Review, which had never left SMU, appointed its first faculty editor since McGinnis. English professor Willard Spiegelman, working with is managing editor Betsey McDougall, would push the journal in a more literary, cosmopolitan direction.[3] Spiegelman would be awarded the PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing in 2005.

In 2016, Spiegelman was succeeded by Greg Brownderville, poet and SMU professor of English. Under Brownderville's leadership, the Southwest Review has developed a significant web presence.[4]

Honors and awards[edit]

  • Ann Harleman's story, Meanwhile, received an O. Henry Award in 2003.
  • Ben Fountain's story, Fantasy for Eleven Fingers, won an O. Henry Award in 2005.
  • Barbara Moss Klein's story, Little Edens, was short-listed for the O. Henry Award in 2005.
  • Merritt Tierce's story, Suck It, was included in Best New Stories from the South 2008.
  • Jacob Appel's story, Rods and Cones, was short-listed for Best American Nonrequired Reading in 2008.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Wedding 'Web' and Review, Dallas Morning News, October 23, 2000
  2. ^ a b c d Thomas, Mary Martha (1971). Southern Methodist University, The First Twenty-Five Years, 1915-1940. Emory University.
  3. ^ a b Association, Texas State Historical. "Southwest Review". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  4. ^ "The "Southwest Review" reimagined – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences". blog.smu.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-05.

External links[edit]