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The Southern Review: A Literary Legend LSU Master of Fine Arts student Eloise Holland spends her time away from class poring over hundreds of stories, poems, and essays from writers around the globe. Holland, a Houston native, is an editorial assistant for The Southern Review, one of the most prestigious and storied literary journals in the country.
For Holland and her fellow MFA student and co-worker Anna Hirsch, the job isn't simply a valuable learning experience, it's a thrilling one. Not only are they following in the footsteps of the publication's co-founder Robert Penn Warren, former poet laureate and a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, they are reading unpublished works sent to them directly by authors both well-known and undiscovered. Holland, Hirsch, and the small staff of the Review spend their spare hours in a small room in Allen Hall, reading the hundreds of submissions that arrive each week from hopeful authors. Just a few steps away, behind a door with a frosted glass window emblazoned with the journal's name, LSU English Professor and Southern Review Editor James Olney waits to receive the works that his staff feel have the most potential.
Sitting in Olney's office, surrounded by overflowing bookshelves, one can almost feel the ghosts of some of the great writers whose words have graced the pages of The Southern Review over the past 68 years: Warren, Eudora Welty, T.S. Eliot, Katherine Anne Porter, and Walker Percy, just to name a few. It is a tremendous legacy, and one that Olney was well aware of when he took on his position 20 years ago. Now he, Holland, and the others on the Review staff are hoping to provide exposure for some of today's best writers, as well as the great literary voices of tomorrow. As the story goes, the idea for The Southern Review was born during a Sunday drive around Baton Rouge in the winter of 1935. James Monroe Smith, then president of LSU, took Robert Penn Warren and wife for a drive in Smith's Cadillac, whereupon he inquired about the possibility of a literary journal based at LSU. Less than six months later, the first issue of The Southern Review went to print. The initial staff of the journal was made up of Editor Charles W. Pipkin, a political science professor; Managing Editors Warren and Cleanth Brooks, English faculty members; and Business Manager Albert Erskine, also an English faculty member.
The publication served to spotlight works by already well-known poets and writers, such as W.H. Auden, Aldous Huxley, and Wallace Stevens. However, it would also become a proving ground for future greats like Welty, Randall Jarrell, and Mary McCarthy. Warren, already an accomplished poet and author, enhanced his critical reputation during his years with the Review and his time in Baton Rouge would serve as inspiration for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The King's Men. Under its original literary "dream team" leadership, The Southern Review thrived for several years, becoming one of the most well-regarded journals in the world. However, it ceased publication in 1942, during the turbulent financial years of World War II. The Review proved resilient, however, as it was reborn in 1965 under the leadership of editors Lewis P. Simpson and Donald E. Stanford (who retired in 1983 and was replaced by Olney). Since that time, this "second series" has expanded on the tradition of the original Southern Review, publishing diverse works by some of the best writers of the modern era, including Nobel Prize-winners such as Toni Morrison and Nigerian novelist and playwright Wole Soyinka.
In addition, the Review has published several special-focus issues, such as one highlighting Irish Poetry and one on African-American writers, featuring work by the likes of James Baldwin, Morrison, and Pinkie Gordon Lane. The publication remains a popular outlet for writers of all types. Olney, who is approaching retirement, continues to help Holland and the others sift through the 20,000 or so manuscripts that arrive in the mail each year. He said he doesn't foresee the volume waning any time soon, and he hopes the publication will continue to break new literary ground in the years to come, under the leadership of someone who will "honor the traditions" of The Southern Review , but "pursue ideas of their own." Contact Rob Anderson | LSU
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