Features

Bringing Literary Elitism to “New and Annoying Heights”
Heather Simons - Features Editor

In the spring of 1987, just a few months before the debut of The Gettysburg Review, founding editor Peter Stitt declared his intention of creating a literary journal focused not on “opaque” essays meant for a small circle of academics, but on literature that is accessible, thought provoking, and well written.

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“The highest criterion I will have for anything I print,” he said in an interview with The Gettysburg Times that year, “will be its readability.”

Thus began the legacy of The Gettysburg Review, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year. The Review publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, and artwork, and has consistently grown since its establishment—in 2007, the U.S. News guide to the best colleges noted that the Review was "recognized as one of the country's best literary journals"—without losing sight of its founding principle: to publish the highest quality literature available.

After two decades, Stitt maintains that his vision for the Review has not changed.
“My vision was exactly what it is now: to be one of the best literary magazines in America,” he said.

Mark Drew, assistant editor, who has worked for the Review for ten years, marvels at its success in a business where small publications often struggle to survive, let alone thrive.
“I’d say it’s a small miracle,” he said. “We’re like restaurants; most literary journals go under in the first few years of operation. It’s a testament to the quality of the magazine and the quality of the writing.”

The Review’s quick success in the literary world has much to do with Stitt’s established connections and his experience as a critic, writer, and editor.

“I don’t think it could have been just anybody,” said Drew. “This is largely Peter’s magazine.”

The first issue of the Review featured such well-known authors as Louis Simpson, Sharon Olds, Charles Wright, and Rita Dove, though Stitt insists there is always a place in the pages of the Review for new voices.

In the past, the Review has published unknown, emerging authors who went on to write award-winning books. Tom Perrotta, best known for his novels Election (1998) and Little Children (2004), both of which were made into Golden Globe-nominated films, was first published in The Gettysburg Review in the autumn of 1988.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides made his debut in the Review in the winter of 1989 and has since written such critically-acclaimed novels as The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex.

Carol Ann Davis, a poet first published in The Gettysburg Review, approached Stitt at the recent conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in New York City. Davis told Stitt that appearing in the Review “made all the difference to her life and her career,” Stitt said.

Reflecting on publishing emerging writers, Stitt said, “It does not thrill an editor to publish a known author. Publishing an unknown author is thrilling. I want to publish fresh work. It is much more satisfying.”

Another feature that has separated the Review from other literary magazines is its emphasis on visual art. At the time of the Review’s inauguration, only one other journal was publishing a regular art section, and, according to Stitt, “they weren’t doing it well.” Stitt, who minored in art in college, decided to include a full-color section dedicated to a different artist in every issue. His method for choosing the artwork, he said, is simple: he looks at a great deal of art.

“It used to be different,” he said. “I used to have to go to New York and visit lots of galleries.” Now, he scours the Internet, considers gallery announcements, and reviews submissions sent in by artists.

“I wanted the best-looking magazine, and I wanted the art, and I also wanted the highest literary quality, and we’ve always maintained that,” said Stitt. “We publish only the best stuff we get, it doesn’t matter who wrote it. I don’t care what the cover letter says. We don’t publish cover letters.”

Drew concurs, adding that the Review doesn’t adhere to a strict artistic guideline. “The quality of the writing matters most, much more than any aesthetic school or stylistic approach.”

Changes in the editorial vision of The Gettysburg Review are few, but the magazine did undergo a redesign in the summer of 2002. The Review’s new look garnered an award in 2003 for Best Journal Design from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.

Besides publishing various forms of literature, the Review contributes in other ways to the cultural richness of the Gettysburg community. Last summer, the Review launched its inaugural Conference for Writers, a five-day gathering that featured small, intensive workshops led by award-winning writers of poetry and prose.

The conference will be held again this June on the Gettysburg College campus, and will feature a corps of distinguished writers, including Rebecca McClanahan and Suzannah Lessard in nonfiction; Lee K. Abbott and G.K. Wuori in fiction; and Terrance Hayes and Peggy Shumaker in poetry.

The Review also sponsors a Speakers Series, which brings published authors to read at Gettysburg College. On April 9th, the featured writer will be Pattiann Rogers, an award-winning poet. The events are free and open to the public.

In 2000, journalist Linton Weeks assessed The Gettysburg Review in a Washington Post article that produced what would become the journal’s current motto. Weeks had been prompted to take a look at the Review after seeing an ad that mentioned several writers who absolutely would not be published in its pages. Although his critique of the journal itself was favorable, Weeks suggested that the ad may well be evidence that the editors were “carrying literary elitism to new, and annoying, heights.”

“I always had an ironic attitude toward that statement, but recently I’ve embraced it as a slogan,” said Stitt. “We are not following fashion or trends or jumping on the bandwagon. If that’s elitism, then cool.”