 The cover of anEpoch magazine edition | |
| Editor | Michael Koch |
|---|---|
| Categories | Literary magazine |
| Frequency | Triannual |
| Publisher | Cornell University |
| Founded | 1947; 78 years ago (1947) |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Ithaca, New York |
| Language | English |
| Website | www |
| ISSN | 0145-1391 |
Epoch is a triannual Americanliterary magazine founded in 1947 and published byCornell University. It has published well-known authors and award-winning work including stories reprinted inThe Best American Short Stories series and poems later included inThe Best American Poetry series.[1] It publishes fiction, poetry, essays, graphic art, and sometimes cartoons and screenplays, but no literary criticism orbook reviews.[1]
Epoch is staffed by faculty and graduate students from the English Department creative writing program, and edited by Michael Koch.Epoch appears in September, January, and May, with issues generally running 128 to 160 pages.[1]
The magazine was established in 1947[2] by Baxter Hathaway, who arrived atCornell University the year before to start a creative writing program. Initially, the magazine was a literary quarterly staffed by the English department.[1]
A story from the magazine's first volume was reprinted inBest American Short Stories and all of the fiction from that volume was cited in the anthology. In the 1950s and 1960s,Epoch featured the first published fiction ofThomas Pynchon andDon DeLillo, and early stories byPhilip Roth,Stanley Elkin, andJoyce Carol Oates.[1]
Some other poets and writers who have appeared in the magazine areJacob M. Appel,[3]Annie Dillard,Rick DeMarinis,[4]Jayne Anne Phillips,Andre Dubus,Amy Hempel,Lee K. Abbott,Charles Simic,Leslie Scalapino,Harriet Doerr,Denis Johnson,Ron Hansen,[5]John L'Heureux,Jorie Graham,Micah Perks, andRick Bass.[6]
The magazine claims that "all" the major anthologies have reproduced its work, includingBest American Essays,The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses,Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards,Editor's Choice Awards,Best of the West, andNew Stories from the South.[1] The periodical also won the first O. Henry Award for best magazine of 1997.[6] Some stories fromEpoch that have been reprinted in anthologies had been picked out of the slush pile by MFA students.[6]
According to theCornell Chronicle, Shannon Ravenel, editor of the anthologyNew Stories from the South: The Year's Best, said ofEpoch, "It's the best. [...]Epoch is just consistently excellent."[6]
C. Michael Curtis, a senior editor atThe Atlantic Monthly, said he considersEpoch "one of the top literary magazines in the country in terms of the consistent quality of the writing that appears there." Curtis worked on the magazine staff as a graduate student from 1959 to 1963.[6]
