Our History

The Missouri Review, founded in 1978, is one of the most highly-regarded literary magazines in the United States and for the past thirty-four years we’ve upheld a reputation for finding and publishing the very best writers first. We are based at the University of Missouri and publish four issues each year. Each issue contains approximately five new stories, three new poetry features, and two essays, all of which is selected from unsolicited submissions sent from writers throughout the world.

The Missouri Review maintains an “open submission” policy and read year round, sifting through approximately 12,000 submissions each year. New, emerging, and mid-career writers whose work has been published in The Missouri Review have been anthologized over 100 times in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Poetry, The O. Henry Prize Anthology, and The Pushcart Prize. We are also pleased to be the first to have published the fiction of many emerging writers, including Katie Chase, Nathan Hogan, Jennie Lin, Susan Ford, and Elisabeth Fairchild.

Writers whose work first appeared in The Missouri Review continue to win major prizes, including the National Book Award, the Yale Younger Poets Award, MacArthur Foundation “Genius” awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally, we publish special features and interviews with a diverse body of writers. In our “History as Literature” series, we have published historical documents that have literary significance or effect. The “Found Text” series features previously unpublished work by literary giants of the past, including Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Marianne Moore, Charlotte Bronte, Jack Kerouac, and William Faulkner.

What people say about us:

“The Missouri Review is, quite simply, one of the best literary journals in the world.” —Robert Olen Butler

“I’ve admired The Missouri Review for years. . . . It’s one of a half-dozen literary magazines I always read.” —Joyce Carol Oates

“When significant contemporary fiction, poetry and interviewing appear in a beautifully designed journal, we have something rare—something called The Missouri Review.” —William Least Heat Moon

Our Staff

Speer Morgan (Editor)

Michael Nye (Managing Editor)

Evelyn Somers (Associate Editor)

Dedra Earl (Assistant Managing Editor)

Kris Somerville (Marketing Director)

Austin Segrest (Poetry Editor)

Patrick Lane (Web Editor)

Claire McQuerry (Contest Co-Editor)

Mike Petrik (Contest Co-Editor)

Kate McIntyre (TextBOX Anthology Editor)

Alison Balaskovits
(Social Media Editor)

Kevin McFillen (Audio Editor)

The Missouri Review is a nationwide leader in literary internships. We believe not just in “using interns” but in training literary editors in an intense, systematic, hands-on program. This program of training qualified professionals in the field of literary magazine publishing makes us unique. From their first day, interns were an integral part of the general operations of magazine. The editors encourage individual initiative and teamwork, while offering interns the resource off their 34 years of publishing experience. Our interns learn practical editing skills and generate publishing credit by writing reviews or conducting author interviews. They also learn the basics, such as manuscript acquisition, magazine distribution and other business practices in order to pursue a career in publishing.

One demonstration of the effectiveness of our internship program is that many of our interns enter into commercial publishing fields, editing other magazines (these include American Literary Review, Crazyhorse, Jabberwock Review, and Ninth Letter, among others) or working at presses. Many others are employed as teachers and professors. Previous and current interns have published more than eight books and contributed to most of the top American literary magazines.