September 1, 2017
Editor’s Notes
Surprise, delight, and mastery: these together are the sine qua non of successful literary writing, as I’ve suggested here before. They represent the qualities editors are always looking for in […]
May 1, 2017
Editor’s Notes
The one-hundredth anniversaries this spring of the births of Robert Lowell and Peter Taylor provide the chance to celebrate not only their achievements as writers—and they were two of the […]
January 1, 2017
Editor’s Notes: What Place Literary Contests?
As in recent years, we are pleased to launch the new volume year by presenting here the winner and runners-up of the 2016 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest. Our final […]
November 1, 2016
Editor’s Notes: Not Opening the Gates—Tearing Them Down
Over the last couple of years one of the most popular features in the Kenyon Review electronic newsletter has been the column “Why We Chose It.” Focusing on some specific […]
July 1, 2016
Editor’s Notes: Submissions Then and Now
Not so long ago—the later 1970s—I wandered vaguely into the elegant Jeffersonian chambers of the Virginia Quarterly Review. Lounging with a newspaper in his wing-backed chair sat the legendary editor […]
May 1, 2016
Editor’s Notes: Literature and the Anthropocene
Prophecy generally makes me cringe. Too many people in our world are too very certain about, well, everything that’s coming next. Yet one exception does stand before us and it’s […]
March 1, 2016
Editor’s Notes
Don’t be fooled by the playful beauty of our covers or the carefully crafted layout and typeface on pages within. The changes that have come to the Kenyon Review over […]
January 1, 2016
Editor’s Notes
Welcome to the 2016 volume year of the Kenyon Review. How swiftly has flown the past year! We’d anticipated it with such hopes, and not a little consternation, featuring the […]
November 1, 2015
Editor’s Notes
Just what makes an essay literary? I’ve been challenged on that recently, not least because I’d like to extend the capaciousness of creative categories. These notes provide an early opportunity. […]
September 1, 2015
Editor’s Notes
As I write these notes, it’s midsummer in Gambier. A cool, rainy year so far, but our green and lovely village is teeming with writers. Hundreds of high school students […]
July 1, 2015
Editor’s Notes
How does one become the editor of a literary journal? In truth, there’s no simple or direct answer. Many hopefuls, struck with the hankering, simply create their own publication ex […]
May 1, 2015
Editor’s Notes
One of the advantages of our new format—fewer pages and more frequent publication—is a greater flexibility and the opportunity to be more adventurous. In this issue of the Kenyon Review […]