After 13 Years, UC's Top-Ranked Literary Magazine Still Thriving

It might surprise many in the University of Cincinnati community to learn that, twice a year, some of the finest American literature comes together at an address so close — Room 369 in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. 

Every year, thousands of stories are told in the small, cozy space that belongs to the "Cincinnati Review," the independent literary magazines that operates out of UC’s Department of English. Or rather, thousands of pages are downloaded onto desktops in the office and pored over by graduate students, who then spend countless hours dividing slush from publishable. All to publish two collections of fiction, nonfiction and poetry in spring and fall. The newest issue, 13.1, was recently released. 

Annually, the magazine receives around 4,000 stories, 2,000 poetry packets and 700 nonfiction pieces a year. “Keeping up with submissions is definitely the most demanding part of working at the magazine,” said Nicola Mason, the Review’s founding managing editor. 

Over the past 13 years, the Review has earned a international reputation as a magazine on the edge of the cutting-edge in the literary world. Open up the latest issue of Best American Poetry or Best American Stories — two of the most trusted annual anthologies — and chances are you’ll find work originally published in the Cincinnati Review. As its staff likes to point out, one year the magazine tied with the New Yorker for total poems included Best American Poetry. 

With a tendency to print short stories unafraid to blend seriousness with humor and poetry that frequently brims with rich imagery, the journal has become an insistent voice in contemporary American writing, and one that shows no signs of quieting. 

Mason credits the reputation of the magazine to her devoted staff and their bravery in the face of literary normalcy. The Review prides itself on never playing it safe. By taking risks, the publication has become an important literary tastemaker, introducing authors like Caitlin Horrocks and Jamie Quatro to wider readerships. Both writers’ debut collection of stories received plaudits from venues like the New Yorker and the New York Times. 

“One thing that’s frustrated me about literary magazines is that there’s been a sense that unless it’s serious, it’s not meaningful,” Mason said. “We champion a sense of meaning through play and imagination, juxtaposition of forms.” 

This determination has led the Review to launch a book imprint, Acre Books. The staff hopes that the same success they’ve had with the magazine will translate onto the publishing platform, which will be dedicated to discovering and delivering the most urgent voices in fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Acre Books’ plans include its first book sometime early next year — a compilation of short stories revolving around the theme “The Very Angry Baby.” 

“Our intent is for the book to a be a bar for the kind and caliber of work Acre Books intends to put out there,” Mason said. “There’s something about a baby’s fury that strikes at our cores, but that’s also comical — a maelstrom of emotion trapped inside this ridiculously tiny body with a scarlet face and waving fists. I’m hoping the idea will speak to the various contributors differently and result in a bunch of different arcs, tones, scenarios — a wide and terrible array of angry babies.” 

Established in 2003 as an outgrowth of UC’s PhD program in creative writing, the review also functions as a hands-on classroom for the graduate workers and volunteers who appraise and edit submissions. “The experience of working at the magazine is invaluable to someone like me who wants to go on and edit or teach fiction,” said Don Peteroy, a doctoral student in creative writing. 

Mason, who’s served as the Review’s editor since its inception, treasures literary magazines for their accessibility, as well as their simple joys. 

“There’s a kind of immediacy to a literary magazine,” she said. “There’s a freshness to them. And variety. You can flip from one thing to another. They’re designed to be read from the first page to the very end. That experience of flow is its own kind of art. There’s an aesthetic journey as well as an emotional journey.”

To add to that journey, the magazine recently appointed Kristen Iversen as its nonfiction editor. Iversen, who teaches creative writing and nonfiction as an associate professor in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, will be tasked with collecting essays, criticism and literary journalism from submitters. 

The magazine also keeps busy with a healthy blog presence and a YouTube channel in the works, as well as a summer contest they hold every year. 

“Though the summer 2016 issue presents some surprising newcomers — including the winners of the Review’s 2015 summer contest — it also boasts work by heavily lauded writers like Barbara Hamby and Beth Ann Fennelly,” Mason said. “There’s also a sneak peak at Steven Sherrill’s long-awaited sequel to his best-selling novel The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.”