‘Sewanee Review’ Revises Itself
Thursday, December 8, 2016
by Kevin Cummings Messenger Staff Writer
One of the top-tier literary magazines in the country is in the midst of a renovation, as editor Adam Ross now carries the torch of the 124-year-old “Sewanee Review.”
With a new home, moving from central campus to the two-story Watson-Torian house on South Carolina Ave., the Review will release its next edition in January, featuring a design revamp by acclaimed book designers Peter Mendelsund and Oliver Munday. The blue cover is gone and will vary issue to issue, and the Review will include photos for the first time, Ross said.
“The magazine has been updated and it’s given it a more modern look and feel,” he said. “Part of that is to give the Review more shelf appeal as we move back into bookstores over the coming year.”
Ross, an accomplished novelist and journalist, assumed the helm of the Review when George Core retired this year after 43 years as editor.
“While we’ve preserved the original spirit of the Sewanee Review in terms of its dedication to excellent writing in poetry, fiction, criticism and nonfiction, obviously there’s an overhaul taking place,” Ross said.
In addition to subscriptions and bookstore purchases, readers will also be able to access The Review online. The website is part of the overhaul, with a redesign, livelier content and a new URL, <thesewaneereview.com>.
Behind the print and online renovation is an expanded staff, up from three to five. The new team consists of four Sewanee English graduates, Alec Hill (C’16) Ansley McDurmon (C’16), Aiken Taylor intern Lily Davenport (C’16), and last year’s intern Robert Walker (C’15).
“Adam said we might have a job and when it came to fruition I was just so excited it just felt like the right move,” said McDurmon, a native of Rome, Ga. “Sometimes someone offers you something and you don’t feel yourself just leaping into it; I think when you do feel like leaping, it’s a good sign.”
Hill, who hails from Philadelphia, said he hopes to one day write for “The New Yorker.”
“This is just an amazing first step for someone who wants to get into writing and I want to do journalism more than fiction or poetry, but this has been an amazing crash course in writing of all kinds,” he said. “We’re reading constantly, we’re reading submissions, and editing some of the stuff that we accept.”
How writers submit work has also changed, with the Review now accepting submissions through the Submittable online program. Walker said submissions are up tremendously since the online option started in September.
The Review is also looking more at Sewanee for its content, from graduates to writers affiliated with the School of Letters and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. In addition to new writers and other established authors, this issue will include content from internationally-recognized writers with Sewanee ties such as Jon Meacham (C’91), John Jeremiah Sullivan (C’97), Writers’ Conference guest and poet Mary Jo Salter, and Adam Kirsch, a poet, critic and past Sewanee lecturer.
“There was a tacit understanding that this first issue that’s coming out would draw heavily on Sewanee power,” Ross said. “There’s a trove of riches just here on the mountain.”
On the shelves in the planning room of the Review’s new home, where marketing and content plans fill the dry erase board, are bound volumes of every issue dating back to 1892—the oldest continuously published periodical. Notable contributors to The Review include William Faulkner, C.S. Lewis, Cormac McCarthy, Ezra Pound and Flannery O’Connor. There’s rich history here and Ross said subscribers are key to the continued success of today’s literary voices.
“Great writing isn’t free. Great art isn’t free. People in the greater Sewanee area and Monteagle area are supporting an institution, but also something that’s important to the culture,” he said.