| Discipline | Literary journal |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Greg Brownderville |
| Publication details | |
Former name(s) | Texas Review |
| History | 1915-present |
| Publisher | Southern Methodist University (United States) |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt  ) | |
| ISO 4 | Southwest Rev. |
| Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L | |
| ISSN | 0038-4712 |
| JSTOR | southwestreview |
| Links | |
TheSouthwest Review is aliterary journal published quarterly atSouthern Methodist University campus inDallas, Texas. Founded in 1915 as theTexas Review, it is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States.[1] The current editor-in-chief is Greg Brownderville.
TheSouthwest Review has featured work by many well-known contributors, including:Quentin Bell,Amy Clampitt,Margaret Drabble,Natalia Ginzburg,James Merrill,Iris Murdoch,Howard Nemerov,Edmund White,Maxim Gorky,Cleanth Brooks, andRobert Penn Warren,Ann Harleman,Thomas Beller,Ben Fountain, andJacob M. Appel.
TheSouthwest Review was founded as theTexas Review in 1915 byStark Young, professor of general literature at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[2]Jay B. Hubbell, theSouthern Methodist University professor who would bring theReview to Dallas in 1924, later reflected on the goals of Young's new journal:
"Young's ambition was to put out a literary magazine, not a critical review like theSewanee Review or theSouth Atlantic Quarterly. What he particularly desired was excellent verse and light essays; he did not want learned articles by college professors."[3]
When Young left forAmherst College, editorship of the journal passed to Young's colleague at the University of Texas,Robert Agder Law, an authority onShakespeare. TheTexas Review languished under Law and seemed doomed—a sentiment he expressed to SMU's Hubbell in 1921. After conferring with his colleagues, Hubbell offered to bring the journal to SMU. Law replied that the University of Texas would not permit the journal to move.[3] Three years later, however, they relented. The transfer involved no movement of materials or personnel—Hubbell received only a list of the journal's sixteen subscribers, one of which was the Southwestern Insane Asylum.[2][3]
At SMU, theTexas Review became theSouthwest Review, and embraced a regional identity and focus.[4] Hubbell, assisted by English scholar George Bond and historianHerbert Gambrell, edited the journal from 1924 to 1927. The journal was published out of the basement ofDallas Hall, where the editors would sometimes be visited by SMU's founding president,Robert S. Hyer.[3] TheReview received acclaim but struggled financially, and at one point Hubbell even wrote to Law to ask if, in the event it became impossible to continue, the University of Texas would take it back.[3] Law said it would. In 1927, however, SMU's administration agreed to allocate $1,000 for the journal in the coming year—enough to keep it going.
When Hubbell and Bond left SMU in 1927, John McGinnis, an English professor, became editor.Henry Nash Smith, then a young instructor in the English department, would recall that theSouthwest Review flourished under McGinnis—who taught a full schedule and contributed regularly to theDallas Morning News—because he turned the production of the journal into a kind of seminar where senior students and junior colleagues collaborated closely throughout the editorial process. Less than a decade after coming to SMU, theSouthwest Review had nearly 1000 paid subscribers.[2]
TheGreat Depression brought various difficulties. Due to financial strain, theSouthwest Review was published jointly by SMU andLouisiana State University between 1931 and 1935. The collaboration ended when the LSU side secured funding for their own magazine, theSouthern Review. TheSouthwestern Review survived the decade, largely thanks to its younger staff, including Henry Nash Smith, John Chapman, andLon Tinkle.[2] A frequent contributor during this era was artist and future director of theDallas Museum of Fine Art,Jerry Bywaters.
McGinnis continued editing theSouthwest Review until 1942. His successor, Donald Day, had a Ph.D. in English but was not on the faculty at SMU. This began a long period of non-faculty editorial leadership. Day managed the publication until 1946. It was then edited by Allen Maxwell until 1963. From 1962 until 1982, it was edited by Margaret Hartley.
In 1984, theSouthwest Review, which had never left SMU, appointed its first faculty editor since McGinnis. English professor Willard Spiegelman, working with managing editor Betsey McDougall, would push the journal in a more literary, cosmopolitan direction.[4] Spiegelman would be awarded thePEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing in 2005.
In 2016, Spiegelman was succeeded by Greg Brownderville, poet and SMU professor of English. Under Brownderville's leadership, theSouthwest Review has developed a significant web presence.[5]