NEWS INDEX Archives 2004 April

Writing program at Illinois publishes inaugural issue of literary magazine

Andrea Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@uiuc.edu

4/21/04

Debut issue of literary journal Ninth Letter.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In the trade, they’re often called “little” literary magazines.

But there is nothing even remotely little about the new literary magazine just published by the Masters in Fine Arts creative writing program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Weighing in at 26 ounces, measuring 9 by 12 inches, nearly a half-inch thick, and 191 pages long, Ninth Letter – to be published every March and November – is super sized.

It also looms large in content. The lead story, for example, is an interview with Yann Martel, the author of “Life of Pi,” an international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Man-Booker Prize. Philip Graham, a U. of I. English professor and prize-winning author, conducted the interview.

The magazine also features two Mark Twain letters, paired with an essay by Michael Martone, and six poems, printed in the original Slovenian and an English translation, by the internationally acclaimed poet Tomaz Salamun.

Other contributors – the group is composed of acclaimed writers and artists, professors and writing program directors – include Robert Olen Butler, Mark Doty, Dave Eggers, Carol Frost, Reagan Louie and Marjorie Sandor. Their stories, poems and essays all are published in the magazine for the first time.

Color photographs, sketches and graphics work and play across the pages, as do all manner of fonts, design elements and layouts.

The design clearly – and purposefully – is experimental, hybrid. In his “Afterword,” Joseph Squier wrote, “I hope that we’ve created something that resists naming, that neither of those words – literary journal – really pins down this object.”

“I anticipate that much of what we produce in the future will be hybrids that seek to creatively evade classification,” Squier wrote.

Jodee Rubins, previously managing editor at the New England Review in Vermont, is the editor. Other editors from the U. of I. English department are Graham, fiction; Michael Madonick, poetry; and David Wright, nonfiction. Squier, who serves as the art editor, is a professor in the U. of I. School of Art and Design, and two of his colleagues in the school, Nan Goggin and Jennifer Gunji-Ballsrud, are the magazine’s designers.

In her introductory Editor’s Note, Rubins quotes the Ninth Letter manifesto, originally written by assistant editor and English department graduate student Christopher Maier: “We view this magazine as an organic work of art: The overall interaction among the components is as important as the discreet objects within the content. We intend to undercut the recent tradition of so-called ‘clever’ publications by raising the aesthetic choices of the magazine within the content of the magazine itself.

“As a result, dialogue will serve a central role, acting as a bridge between the disparate aspects of the magazine. Therefore, each issue will not be a mere container for discreet, isolated objects; rather, it will – on all levels, from content to graphic design – generate a full, cohesive conversation.”

At the end of her introduction, Rubins invites readers to “See if we succeed, or if we fail. Either way, let us know what you think – without you, the reader, the conversation would have no reason to exist, and could not continue.”

Near the end of the magazine is a more light-hearted “Contributors” section. Each contributor is identified in more or less traditional form, but each also responds – in his or her unique fashion – to the Esquire magazine/Paris-Review type question, “What’s on your desk.”

From this exercise we learn that the contributors are a fairly superstitious lot. For example, story writer/novelist Steve Almond, has a small collection of “personalized writing mojo” on his desk: “handcrafted paper, marbles, toothpick, and black pen by Victor Cruz.”

Artist Linda Connor, founding director of PhotoAlliance in San Francisco, has “two small philosopher stones,” and poet Susan Hahn has “a magic wand made of wood.”

Many of the contributors have fountain-pen collections on their desks, and many have Illinois or University of Illinois connections. In the latter group are May Berenbaum, head of the U. of I. entomology department; Mark Doty, who publishes with the U. of I. Press; and Dave Eggers, a 1992 graduate of the U. of I.

Faculty members in the U. of I. MFA program, begun two years ago by the English department, are Paul Friedman, Graham, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Laurence Lieberman, Madonick, Audrey Petty, Richard Powers, Jean Thompson, Michael Van Walleghen and Wright.

The U. of I. has published three previous literary magazines. The first, The Illinois Magazine, 1902 to 1925, was a general magazine. Contributors included students and faculty members and distinguished writers, including the Pulitzer-prize winning poet-critic Mark Van Doren.

The university’s first national literary publication was Accent, 1940-1960. Edited first by Kerker Quinn, and later by Dan Curley, the magazine published established writers such as Conrad Aiken, E.E. Cummings, Katherine Ann Porter and Wallace Stevens. Previously unpublished writers also turned to it because of its reputation for interest in new writers and careful editorial readings. Curley, William Gass, Flannery O’Connor, J.F. Powers and other distinguished novelists, poets and short-story writers first published in Accent.

Ascent was published at Illinois from 1975 to 1989, under the editorship of Curley, until his death in 1988. The magazine first published writings by Mae Briskin, Brendan Galvin and Bobbie Ann Mason. It won 19 awards and placed eight stories in the prestigious yearly anthologies “Best American Short Stories” and the “O. Henry Awards.” Ascent now is published by Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.

Ninth Letter is available at the Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St., Champaign, at Borders Books in Champaign, at Pages for All Ages in Savoy and at the magazine’s Web site.