Boston Review

Boston Review

January / February 2011 Issue
Editors	Deborah Chasman and Joshua Cohen
Categories	Politics, literature, culture
Frequency	bimonthly
Circulation	62,000
Publisher	Boston Critic, Inc.
Year founded	1975
Country	United States
Based in	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Language	American English
Website	http://www.bostonreview.net
ISSN	0734-2306

Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers politics, poetry, film, fiction, philosophy, economics, book reviews, and criticism. Boston Review also publishes an imprint of books alongside MIT Press.

The editors are Deborah Chasman and philosopher Joshua Cohen; Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Junot Díaz is the fiction editor.

The magazine is published by Boston Critic, Inc., a nonprofit organization. It has received praise from notable intellectuals including John Rawls and Henry Louis Gates, Jr..

History

Prior to 2010, Boston Review appeared in tabloid format. Above is the March/April 2009 issue cover.

Boston Review was founded as New Boston Review in 1975. A quarterly devoted to literature and the arts, the magazine was started by a group that included Juan Alonso, Richard Burgin, and Anita Silvey. In 1976, after the departure of some of the founding editors, the publication was co-edited by Juan Alonso and Gail Pool, and then by Gail Pool and Lorna Condon. In the late seventies, it switched from quarterly to bimonthly publication. In 1980, Arthur Rosenthal became publisher of the magazine, which was renamed Boston Review and edited by Nick Bromell. Succeeding editors were Mark Silk and then Margaret Ann Roth, who remained until 1991.

During the eighties, the focus of the magazine broadened and during the nineties became more politically oriented, while maintaining a strong profile in both fiction and poetry.

Joshua Cohen replaced Roth in 1991, and has been editor since then. The full text Boston Review has been available online since 1995. Since 1996, twenty-six books have been published based on articles and forums that originally appeared in the Boston Review. Since 2006, MIT Press has been publishing a "Boston Review Books" series.

Deborah Chasman joined the magazine as co-editor in 2001. Pulitzer-prize winner Junot Díaz is the current fiction editor; Timothy Donnelly, B.K. Fischer, and Stefania Heim are the poetry editors. Simon Waxman is the managing editor.

In 2010, Boston Review switched from black and white tabloid to glossy, all-color format.^[1] The same year, it was the recipient of Utne Reader magazine's Utne Independent Press Award for Best Writing.^[2]

Features

New Democracy Forum

The New Democracy Forum is a special feature of the Boston Review. It offers an arena for fostering and exploring issues regarding politics and policy. A typical forum includes a lead article by an expert and contributions from other respondents. Past forums have covered topics such as making foreign aid work, a strategy to disengage from Iraq, and new economic stress in the middle class.

New Fiction Forum

The New Fiction Forum was created as "a space for wide-ranging dialogue about contemporary fiction, a dialogue founded on a simple premise: that despite the intense commercialism of current publishing, there are original, vital novels published every season and readers to whom such narratives are of the profoundest importance". Past forums include fiction and reviews by Jhumpa Lahiri and Emily Barton.

Fiction contests

The publication sponsors well-regarded annual contests in fiction; past winners include Michael Dorris, Tom Paine, and Jacob M. Appel.

"Discovery" prize

The annual "Discovery"/Boston Review prize is given for a group of poems by a poet who has not yet published a book. Typically, the prize is awarded to four winners and four runners-up;^[3] winners read from their work at the 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center. Begun in the 1960s as the The Nation/"Discovery" prize, the Boston Review took over administration of the prize in 2007 when The Nation ended its partnership.^[3] Previous winners of the "Discovery" prize include Alice James Books, Emily Hiestand, John Poch, and Martin Walls.

Notable contributors

Bruce Ackerman, professor of law Sadik Al-Azm, philosopher John Ashbery, poet Mary Jo Bang, poet Dan Beachy-Quick, poet Saul Bellow, novelist Seyla Benhabib, philosopher and political scientist John Berger, artist, writer, and critic Jagdish Bhagwati, economist Joseph Biden, U.S. Vice President Hans Blix, diplomat, UN weapons inspector Harold Bloom, literary scholar Roberto Bolaño, Chilean novelist and poet Roger Boylan, novelist and critic Lucie Brock-Broido, poet Stephen Burt, literary scholar Rafael Campo, poet, doctor and writer Aimé Césaire, poet and politician Philip N. Cohen, sociologist Noam Chomsky, linguist and political activist Juan Cole, historian Paul Collier, economist Colin Dayan, professor of American studies Rita Dove, Poet Laureate of the United States Khaled Abou El Fadl, professor of law Owen Fiss, professor of law Robert Frank, photographer and filmmaker John Kenneth Galbraith, economist Akbar Ganji, journalist Michael Gecan, political activist Vivian Gornick, essayist and critic Jorie Graham, poet Lani Guinier, professor of law Donald Hall, Poet Laureate of the United States Pamela S. Karlan, professor of law Elias Khoury, Lebanese novelist and journalist Paul Krugman, economist Jhumpa Lahiri, novelist Glenn Loury, economist Heather McHugh, poet Honor Moore, poet Luis Moreno-Ocampo, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor

Martha Nussbaum, philosopher Susan Okin, feminist political philosopher George Packer, journalist Grace Paley, writer and activist Gerald Peary, film critic Gareth Russell Price, book reviewer Marjorie Perloff, literary scholar Rick Perlstein, historian and political commentator Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States Eric Posner, professor of law Hilary Putnam, philosopher John Rawls, philosopher Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate of the United States John Roemer, economist Adrienne Rich, feminist poet Richard Rorty, philosopher Nir Rosen, journalist Saskia Sassen, sociologist Elaine Scarry, literary scholar Don Share, poet and literary critic Charles Simic, Poet Laureate of the United States Anne-Marie Slaughter, international affairs scholar Susan Sontag, essayist and social critic Eliot Spitzer, former Governor of New York Richard Stallman, software developer Nicholas Stern, economist Alan A. Stone, professor of law, psychologist, and film critic Mark Strand, Poet Laureate of the United States Susan Sturm, professor of law Cass Sunstein, professor of law, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Charles Taylor, philosopher Charles Tilly, sociologist John Updike, writer Hal Varian, economist Eliot Weinberger, essayist and translator Stephen Walt, international affairs scholar C.D. Wright, poet Howard Zinn, historian and social critic Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law

See also

• List of literary magazines

References

1. http://bostonreview.net/BR35.5/chasman_cohen.php
2. "Winners of the 2010 Utne Independent Press Awards". Retrieved 27 October 2010.
3. "Four Poets Officially Discovered in 'Discovery'/Boston Review Contest," Poets & Writers (April 29, 2009).

External links

• Boston Review's website
• Boston Review Books series