The Sewanee Review

Thematic and Special Issues

Summer 2011: Fiction and the Criticism of Fiction

Our summer issue has an old theme but is rife with fresh and exciting essays. We have Dawn Potter on Dickens, George Watson on George Bernard Shaw, James L. W. West III on William Styron, A. Banerjee on D. H. Lawrence, Kathryn Starbuck on her late husband George Starbuck and Flannery O'Connor, and David Heddendorf on Trollope. Laura C. Stevenson presents a featured essay on the evolution of children's literature in Victorian England. We also have two new installments in our occasional series, Revaluations, with examinations of J. G. Farrell's Troubles and Allen Tate's The Fathers. Bert Cardullo joins us again with his examination of the theatre criticism of Stanley Kauffmann, and Robert Ashcom remembers a hunting trip with William Faulkner. Merritt Moseley provides his report on the 2010 Booker Prize winners. Wendell Berry tops it all off with the piece de resistance, a new story.

Fall 2011: Literature of War

We are proud to announce the seventh issue of the SR devoted to the literature of war, due out this fall! Frequent contributor Phillip Parotti presents a new narrative set during the Trojan War, and newcomer Kathleen Ford provides a story set during the rise of the IRA and the outbreak of the Irish Civil War. Themes as varied as the siege of the Alamo and the fall of Ilium abound in new poetry by Floyd Collins, Robert Cooperman, and Austin Smith. The late Charles East, a writer who was equally at home with Civil War history and the work of Flannery O'Connor, has an essay forthcoming, as does Robert Lacy. Edward Alexander reviews Zsuzsanna Ozsváth's When the Danube Ran Red, Geoffrey Lindsay remembers Aiken Taylor Award winner Anthony Hecht in Japan during World War II, and Martin Greenberg revisits Winston Churchill. Longtime reviewer Cushing Strout takes aim at Jill Lepore's new book on the Tea Parties of the 18th and 21st centuries.

Winter 2012: Poetry and the Criticism of Poetry

Following the success our 2011 debut, “Idioms of Poetry,” we will begin the new year with another volume dedicated to verse.  Join us as we examine Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Louis MacNeice, Kathleen Raine (whom our own Andrew Lytle greatly admired), Johnson’s Lives of the Poets, and one of the old masters, Ovid. We also have commentary on two recent Aiken Taylor Award winners, as David Yezzi captures the vision of Louise Glück, and John A. Murray remembers the late John Haines.  If you’re looking for new poetry, we’ve got that as well: Margaret Boyers, Robert Cording, Ben Howard, Don Junkins, Warren Leamon, and Sarah Rossiter are just a few of the featured poets in this issue.  But the hidden gem in this issue dedicated to poetry might actually be Fred Chappel’s story, “Things Beyond Us,” fueled by the egomania of a poet and the lethargy of her consort.

Spring 2012: Village Life and the Natural World

We have eight stories lined up for this fiction and criticism issue.  All the stories and half of the essays are concerned with small-town rural life.  We are pleased to announce that ff those eight stories, five come from writers new to the Sewanee Review: Michael Beeman, Ross Howell, Richard Jacobs, Robert Schirmer, and Mark Walling.  They join our esteemed regular contributors including Thomas Bontly, T. Alan Boughton, and Franklin Boroughs.   Other highlights include Robert Benson meditating on hunting and the craft of writing, Robert Lacy on trout fishing, and Gladys Swan giving us a dose of the “Tonic of Wildness.”  Reviews are still coming in, but you’ll definitely see a review of Richard Burgin’s new novel, Rivers Last Longer, a retrospective of Elizabeth Hardwick’s career, and an essay by Cushing Strout on Mark Twain and the “idea of progress.”  Finally, Phillip Tarzain (of the Weekly Standard) and David Heddendorf, a regular contributor, will trace their literary roots.  Stay tuned for more information as the issue continues to take shape.