Reese Kwon admits that the odds are steep, but nonetheless calls it "immensely worthwhile" to write the folks at Northwestern University and urge them to reconsider their appalling decision to gut the editorial board of TriQuarterly.
Because, of course, the upsetting part of the announced changes is that the university has decided the magazine no longer needs its editors and TriQuarterly can function just as well as an “‘open source’ student-run journal.” (The university is moving the print journal online, too, but that’s comparatively a minor point.) Editors–it should be needless to say, but it seems it isn’t–matter, as does demonstrated expertise. For the most part, editors labor for little glory and less pay because they love discovering, curating, and, well, editing new literature–and the good ones are invaluable. Poet C. Dale Young writes here about the wisdom that TriQuarterly’s longstanding editor Susan Hahn brought to bear on his first manuscript of poems; the New Yorker’s Book Bench makes the point that “reducing overhead in materials and distribution by publishing online is one thing; letting go of the editors who guided the literary vision of a serious journal over the course of decades signals a more ominous commitment to cost-efficiency at the expense of institutional and intellectual values.”
Speak up, says Kwon.
The how: the president of Northwestern is Morton Shapiro, and he can be reached at nu-president@northwestern.edu.
The why: in short, TriQuarterly is an excellent and groundbreaking literary magazine, founded in 1958, that was the first to discover writers ranging from Amy Hempel (by publishing her heartstopping and oft-anthologized story, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried”) to, more recently, Aleksander Hemon. As per an email sent out by TriQuarterly’s associate editor, Ian Morris, the decision was made by the university–and handed down to the review’s editors–only hours before a press release went out.
I appreciate, too, Kwon's urging to show your love by subscribing to at least one of the dozens and dozens of amazing literary magazines and journals out there. I picked five that I loved and listed them as my current "Top Five" in the far-right column. But I'd just as soon nominate the New England Review, or the Kenyon Review, or Five Points, or Glimmer Train, or Ploughshares, or Brick, or Witness as being among those that are extraordinary and highly worth your love.
Got too much to read? Don't feel like you have attention left over for another magazine or journal coming to your doorstep? One of my favorite gifts for people is a specially-chosen gift subscription to something I think they'll fall for. The choosing is enormous fun. And, as they say, it is a gift that keeps on giving.
So, step up, open up your mind, have a bit of backbone, and support the vibrant literary culture that I know you value so much.
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