The Gettysburg Review

The Gettysburg Review
DisciplineLiterary journal
LanguageEnglish
Edited byMark Drew
Publication details
History1988-2023
Publisher
FrequencyQuarterly
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Gettysbg. Rev.
Indexing
ISSN0898-4557
Links

The Gettysburg Review was a quarterly literary magazine featuring short stories, poetry, essays and reviews. Work that appeared in the magazine has been reprinted in "best-of" anthologies and receives awards.

The magazine was "recognized as one of the country’s premier journals," according to a description at the Web site of the New York Public Library.[1] The 2007 U.S. News guide to the best colleges described the review as "recognized as one of the country's best literary journals."[2] According to a Web page of the English Department of the University of Wisconsin Colleges, the Gettysburg Review is considered a "major literary journal in the U.S."[3]

History

Founded in 1988,[4] the magazine was published by Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It came out in quarterly issues in January, April, July, and October.[5] The magazine published its final issue in December 2023.[6][7]

The magazine did not print material which had been published elsewhere. Along with fresh and new short stories, it was open to publishing original poetry, whether short or long, and excerpts from novels. The magazine occasionally serialized longer fictional works over more than one issue. "Essays can be on virtually any subject, so long as it is treated in a literary fashion — gracefully and in depth," according to the magazine's website.[8][9]

The Gettysburg Review was one of the most frequent sources of material for The Best American Essays, The Best American Poetry, and The Best American Short Stories series. Other anthologies that have reprinted work originally published in the magazine: The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, The Best Creative Nonfiction, The Best American Mystery Stories, Best New American Voices, Best New Poets, New Stories from the South, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. Other work has been reprinted in publications such as Harpers and the UTNE Reader.[10]

Prominent writers who have appeared in the magazine's pages include E. L. Doctorow, Rita Dove, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeffrey Eugenides, Linda Pastan, James Tate, and Donald Hall.[10] Recent writers published in the journal include Gary Fincke, Robert Gibb, and Jacob M. Appel.

The periodical won awards including the Best New Journal award, four Best Journal Design awards from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, and a PEN/Nora Magid Award for Excellence in Editing.[11]

In a 1994 review of the magazine, Ron Tanner wrote that the stories in the 1993 issues were widely varied in style, but "are clearly in the mainstream of contemporary American fiction — you will not find 'experimental' work in The Gettysburg Review."

He also found the stories have a common "concern for character, and an examination of the emotional and psychological distance one might travel when faced with a problem. [...] each compels the character to make a decision, to make an effort, to make a move. Consequently, things happen in these stories. Which is to say that we end in a place very different from the story's beginning. In no resolution of a Gettysburg story, however, do we find ourselves living Happily Ever After. Life is more complicated than that, these writers assert."[12]

The quarterly received about 6,000 submissions per year and did not solicit work except for occasional reviews. "[W]e work hard not to have a regular stable of writers or favored persons of any kind," said founding editor Peter Stitt. "We are most proud of publishing writers who have never before appeared in a nationally-circulated journal. But we do not actively search through the slush pile for anything but good writing."[13]

The magazine was supported financially by Gettysburg College, for the most part, although it also received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the NEA, along with some revenue from subscriptions.[13]

Final issue

On October 3, 2023, Gettysburg College president Bob Iuliano announced that The Gettysburg Review would publish its final issue in December and then cease publication permanently.[7][14] The editors of The Gettysburg Review stated that they were never involved in any discussions regarding the termination of the journal.[15]

Appearances in The Best American Mystery Stories series

Appearances in The Best American Poetry series

Masthead

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Literary Magazine Editors Introducing Emerging Writers at The New York Public Library" New York Public Library Web site (the description does, however appear to have come from the magazine itself; nevertheless, it was approved for publishing at the respected library's Web site), Retrieved June 10, 2007
  2. ^ [1] Web page titled "America's Best Colleges 2007 / Gettysburg College", (given the similarity in wording, the phrase, slightly reworded, may have come from some promotional material from the college; nevertheless, the magazine's editors endorsed it by publishing it), Retrieved June 10, 2007
  3. ^ Literature and Writing Archived 2007-06-03 at the Wayback Machine University of Wisconsin Colleges Web site, Retrieved June 10, 2007
  4. ^ "Top 50 Literary Magazine". EWR. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  5. ^ "Masthead" The Gettysburgh Review, Retrieved February 8, 2007
  6. ^ "Gettysburg Review - Home". www.gettysburgreview.com. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "The College Administration Announces the Termination of the Gettysburg Review". The Gettysburgian. October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  8. ^ Submissions The Gettysburg Review Web site, Retrieved February 8, 2007
  9. ^ Guidelines - Fiction
  10. ^ a b Gettysburg Review New Pages, Retrieved February 8, 2007
  11. ^ Uniquely Gettysburg Gettysburg College Web site, Retrieved February 8, 2007
  12. ^ Tanner, Ron. Gettysburg Review Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1994, Retrieved February 8, 2007
  13. ^ a b "Interview with LitJournals / Conducted by Dan Wickett on January 19, 2005" Emerging Writers Forum, Retrieved June 10, 2007
  14. ^ Why Is Gettysburg College Giving Up on ‘The Gettysburg Review’? (chronicle.com)
  15. ^ "Gettysburg College ends award-winning literary publication of 35 years". Penn Live Patriot News. October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.