On September 1, Robert Stewart became the fourth editor of New Letters (iml.umkc.edu/newletters), the 68-year-old literary magazine of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Stewart served as managing editor under James McKinley, whose final issue, after 17 years as editor, was devoted to writing and art about baseball. Upcoming issues of the quarterly magazine will include poetry by Denmark's Pia Tafdrup and an essay by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Charles Simic.
Published in Canada since 1977, the biannual literary magazine Brick (www.brickmag.com) is finally available south of Windsor, Ontario. In preparation for its 25th anniversary issue, Brick recently secured distribution in the U.S. through Publisher's Group West. Edited by Michael Ondaatje, Michael Redhill, and Esta and Linda Spalding, Brick has featured work by Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, J.M. Coetzee, Jonathan Lethem, Annie Proulx, Salman Rushdie, W.G. Sebald, and others.
Hotel Amerika (www.hotelamerika.net) recently filled the vacancy left by The Ohio Review (www.ohiou.edu/theohioreview) at Ohio University in Athens. Edited by Wayne Dodd since its creation in 1971, The Ohio Review ceased publication after Dodd's retirement in 2001. The final, two-volume, thousand-page, 30th anniversary issue of the journal featured almost two hundred writers. The premier issue of Hotel Amerika, edited by Erin Belieu, includes poetry by John Ashbery, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Rosmarie Waldrop, and Charles Wright, and fiction by Guy Davenport and Alyce Miller.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of 96 Inc (www.96inc.com), an annual literary magazine published by the Boston-based nonprofit of the same name, editors Vera Gold and Nancy Mehegan assembled the current, special issue featuring the work of over 35 poets and fiction writers. The magazine was founded in 1992 to showcase the work of the 15-member Kenmore Writers' Group, who eventually became the founding members of the nonprofit that now offers programs such as Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a shelter for homeless teens, and Lansdowne Street Drama, an after-school program for teenagers and adults. In 1994, 96 Inc began accepting submissions and is now distributed nationally by Bernhard DeBoer, Inc.
In the journal's first change of editorship in 16 years, David Herd and Robert Potts recently took the helm of the British quarterly Poetry Review (www.poetrysociety.org.uk/review/review.htm), published by the 93-year-old London-based nonprofit Poetry Society. Herd, who teaches English and American literature at the University of Kent in Canterbury, and Potts, the politics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and poetry critic for the Guardian, replace former editor Peter Forbes.
Although the new quarterly literary magazine Gloss (www.glosszine.org) can be found only on the Web—its premier issue will appear this month—editor JJ Wylie is still interested in old-fashioned print technology. "I hope that Gloss eventually has a print avatar, such as a 'Best of' volume, but Gloss's manifestation as an Internet publication allows it to reach critical mass in terms of output and in terms of audience in a very short period of time," says Wylie. "Still, there's nothing like holding a book or a journal in your hand, reading it and being able to turn its pages as you sit on your patio, listening to your dog snuffle around the lawn." The first issue of Gloss includes poems by Douglas Goetsche, Robert King, Sarah Lindsay, and Jack Ridl, and fiction by John Dufresne, Paul Eggers, Richard Marshall, and Joan Michael.
After 21 years of publication at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, the annual literary magazine Explorations has ceased publication. In the final issue, editor and cofounder Art Petersen wrote that one of the aims of the magazine was "to recognize and maintain art as a need in society on par with medicine, national defense, or food."
