By Suzy Alstrin
What began as a saddle-stitched newsletter at DeKalb Community College in Dunwoody, Georgia has evolved over four decades into a nationally respected literary magazine published by Reinhardt University Press since 2016. The James Dickey Review, named for the Georgia poet and novelist, features the original creative work of writers around the world in its annual publication.
Volume 40 of the James Dickey Review is now available online. It features 33 writers, including new poetry by 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser, a book review by Reinhardt Dean Emeritus Dr. A. Wayne Glowka, and an essay by Reinhardt President Mark A. Roberts. The cover features original artwork from the first edition of Dickey’s novel Deliverance (Houghton Mifflin, 1970), provided by its artist Wendell Minor.
Widely regarded as one of the major mid-century American writers, James Dickey was born in 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia. Dickey’s numerous poetry collections include Into the Stone (1960), The Eagle’s Mile (1990), and Buckdancer’s Choice (1965), which received both the National Book Award and the Melville Cane Award. In the mid-1960s he served as poet-in-residence at the Library of Congress.
A recent ranking of over 300 literary magazines in the country placed the James Dickey Review as 60th, according to Bill Walsh, director of Reinhardt’s Etowah Valley Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing program and editor of the James Dickey Review. He elaborated, “It has a good national reputation as being a high-quality magazine. It’s hard to get in, hard to publish and we only take the best work.” The magazine also provides invaluable experience for MFA students who serve as the editorial staff and a select few undergraduates who serve as editorial assistants.
Dr. Roberts said, “It’s an honor to be included in the 40th anniversary edition of JDR. The essay that I submitted was carefully reviewed by the editorial team; they offered excellent guidance, which made the work much better. It’s unusual to be a part of such a learning community where a president, who is also a writer, gets to receive quality advise from students attending his own college… But that’s kind of the Reinhardt Way.”
Submissions can be sent to JamesDickeyReview@reinhardt.edu before June 1st.
