The Missouri Review

In the literary world, the past few weeks have been filled with stories about Virginia Quarterly Review and the suicide of its managing editor, Kevin Morrissey.  Not only has there been a flurry of inaccuracies, but also a damning indictment of the University of Virginia, VQR, and its editor, Ted Genoways.  Our marketing director, Kris [...]

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Brevity, the awesome online journal of (very) short non-fiction, has been around for over a decade, publishing, in 750-words or less, wonderful work that has been anthologized in Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, and Utne Reader, among others.  Heavy hitters published by Brevity include Sherman Alexie, Terese Svoboda, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Robin Hemley, Lee Martin, Rebecca McClanahan, [...]

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With the end of the fiscal year looming, I’ve fallen a wee bit behind on the blogging. So, a quick link for you. Tip o’the cap to TMR favorite Cheryl Strayed for this link to Danielle Evans blog, who pushes through the typical complaints about MFA programs and discusses several interesting concepts (particularly the novel [...]

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Approximately two years ago, ten gunmen executed a three-day assault in Mumbai, India, attacking hotels, a railway station, a restaurants, and a Jewish center. Today in India, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, a Pakistani citizen aged 22, was found guilty on Monday of many charges, including murder and waging war on India. He was the only [...]

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Everybody wants to rule the world (is that song stuck in your head yet?  No?  Give it time …) and be at the top of any given list: Best Dressed, Best One Hit Wonders, Best Late Night Dining Options, etc. The Missouri Review isn’t the top of this new list, but hey, art is subjective, [...]

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Tip o’ the cap to TMR favorite (and fellow Buckeye) Kyle Minor for posting about this interesting site from acclaimed writers Bill Roorbach and Dave Gessner.  I would tell you what it is, but I’m not entirely sure how to classify it. There are essays, cartoons, podcasts, links, and all kinds of thought-provoking goodness.   [...]

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Richard Bausch, also, is coming to Columbia. One of TMR’s favorite writers has generously donated his time for The Missouri Review’s annual fundraiser.  The event is May 2nd at Murry’s Restaurant and begins at 600 pm. You can purchase tickets or make a donation here. I hope you can make it, drink some wine, eat [...]

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There’s been some buzz in recently among tech circles about a new presentation system called Prezi. The idea behind Prezi is to construct presentations not around a series of slides, but rather in the form of a single huge map (reminiscent of a brainstorming “mind-map”) that navigate around, zooming in to individual images or items [...]

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For those of you following the ongoing search for Craig Arnold, the American poet who disappeared earlier this week while researching volcanoes in Japan, you may find his blog, The Volcano Pilgrim, of interest. Last updated April 26, just before he went missing, he describes his surroundings with a poet’s eye and clearly capture’s the [...]

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I’m going to try Twitter. My user name is speerladdie (pardon the cuteness; everything simple was already used). So join with me. I’m particularly interested in authors, writers at all career phases (we specialize in “firsts”, so I’m very interested in writers at the struggle phase), good new books, and other editors, including those at [...]

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A wonderful site if you want to listen to poetry.

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Lisa K. Buchanan, who was our first runner-up in the voice-only creative non-fiction category of our 2007 Audio Competition, can currently be heard on the KQED’s “The Writers’ Block” reading her winning entry to Opium Magazine’s 2007 “Bookmark Contest” in which authors had to submit a 250-word story that could be printed on a bookmark. [...]

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If you’re a fan of one of our favorite cartoonists–Mick Stevens–then you will enjoy reading his blog I Really Should Be Drawing. He discusses where he finds inspiration and a whole host of other things that fall this side of funny. You also can see more of Mick’s work in our newest issue–Vol. 30 #4.

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The Missouri Review has a long history of sending our former interns into the world of publishing. Jason Koo, our former poetry editor, becomes our latest flag bearer into the literary magazine world. He and friends Bill Hughes, Robert Liddell, and Jeff Bernard have just launched Low Rent magazine. Check it out at www.lowrentmagazine.com.

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If you were listening to Columbia’s NPR station last week and thought you heard Speer’s voice, you weren’t mistaken. Speer sat down to chat with Janet Saidi for Off the Clock, a local arts/culture program. Listen to the complete interview here.

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Salon has a fascinating and somewhat alarming article today about a recent corporate bankruptcy fiasco that has endangered many independent book publishers. From the article: McSweeney’s is far from the only publisher that’s taken a hit: As a result of the bankruptcy, either directly or indirectly, small publishers Soft Skull, Hugh Lauter Levin and Inner [...]

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In his undergrad days at Occidental College in L.A., Barack Obama penned some poems that found their way into the school’s literary magazine. While the work yields no clues to his future political ambitions, it does indicate he had an ear for language and, blogger Steven Barrie-Anthony writes, shows a “modicum of humanness from a less circumspect past.”

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This month, The Missouri Review began its 30th year of publication. Read about three decades of notable discoveries and features here in an article from MIZZOU magazine.

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Tom Lutz has an interesting piece in Salon today examining the history of “How To Read Books” books, prompted, apparently, by Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. Lutz’s piece begins by questioning why so many of these guides (Harold Bloom’s [...]

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As the editor in charge of book reviews, Evelyn Rogers receives many and varied titles. She was kind enough to pass along to me a book on nonfiction called Telling True Stories (Plume, 2007). It’s a collection of essays developed from five years’ worth of presentations at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Since the Nieman program strives “to help editors and writers understand and deploy the power of narrative for presenting the news engagingly,” one can expect a more journalistic approach. But there’s plenty of insightful essays for creative nonfiction types of all sorts, including sections entitled, “Name Your Subgenre,” “Ethics,” “Editing” and “Building a Career in Magazines and Books.” Among the 52 contributing writers and editors, you’ll find Gay Talese, Nora Ephron, Adam Hochschild, Tom Wolfe, Tracy Kidder, Susan Orlean, Phillip Lopate and Debra Dickerson. To learn more about the Neiman Foundation at Harvard University, its conference and other offerings, click here.

Richard Sowienski

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In case you missed it, Nicaraguan/Salvadoran writer Claribel Alegría was selected as the winner of the 2006 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. The $50,000 prize is awarded biennially by Oklahoma University and the journal World Literature Today to the most outstanding international writer. See the interview [here]. Alegría, acclaimed for her writing on justice and [...]

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I’ve won a t-shirt! Chronogram, a newspaper aimed at “nourishing and supporting the creative and cultural life of the Hudson Valley” (that’s Hudson Valley, NY), ran a witty little contest, and yours truly came in 15th place! I know! I’m really excited about it! The contest, called “Joined at the Hip,” involves merging the titles [...]

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We recently heard Unbridled Books’ new podcast series, which presents interviews with authors and short readings from their work. The series is being produced and hosted by Kay Bonetti Callison, who conducted some of The Missouri Review’s most memorable interviews, talking with authors such as Chinua Achebe, Richard Ford, Jamaica Kincaid, and Robert Olen Butler. [...]

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This November will mark the ninth year of existence for National Novel Writing Month, in which writers everywhere are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of the month. The NaNoWriMo website offers support forums, advice columns, and a radio show to help you along the hard road of producing 1,700 words [...]

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