Mississippi Review: A Barthleme Retrospective

The Mississippi Review celebrates 30 years with its newest issue (volume 39, numbers 1-3). “Thirty-three and a half, to be exact,” Editor Julie Johnson begins her introduction. She’s not speaking so much of the magazine itself as she is of Frederick Barthleme’s long and distinguished history with the magazine before his ‘impolite jettison’ – “as part of a putsch at the university.” Johnson took over and then subsequently received an offer from the U of Kentucky. Her final act as editor of the MR: “to highlight the thirty years the magazine had been Barthleme’s.”

Johnson and Associate Editor Elizabeth Wagner have trolled the sixty-five archive issues of Mississippi Review, attempting to select only two pieces per issue (arduous!). The result is this massive collection, this tome (800+ pages), certainly colljavascript:void(0)ectible for ardent readers, and no doubt teachable as an anthology of contemporary literature as much as it is a study of the editorial mark of Barthleme.

Nicely played Julie.