illustration by Sean McCabe
Welcome to textBOX: a collection of some of the best short fiction, essays and poetry from the archives of The Missouri Review, one of the nation’s leading literary magazines since 1978. This free anthology is designed to provide access for students and teachers of creative writing and contemporary literature to some of the best short fiction, nonfiction and poetry published in The Missouri Review over the past quarter century.
Each piece included in the anthology has been chosen by the editors as one of the best pieces of literature we have had the privilege to publish in The Missouri Review. What makes these pieces so great? Many things. Some of them have won The Missouri Review’s Editors’ Prize, others have been reprinted in highly respected prize anthologies and, most importantly, all of them are pieces we’ve remembered and continued to think about long after the issue in which they were first published had been boxed up to make space for the next one.
Every essay, story and poem in the anthology is accompanied by a brief critical introduction, interpretive and craft-oriented reading questions and writing prompts. As this project continues to develop, we will be adding more remarkable literature and additional supplementary materials, including author interviews, audio files and more. For news and updates to the site, check out the News tab (from which you can subscribe to the news feed). In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the fiction, essays and poetry selected from our archives.
Questions or comments about the site can be directed to tmranthology [at] missouri [dot] edu.