Welcome

Shenandoah Now Online at shenandoahliterary.org

After six decades as a prominent print journal, Washington and Lee's acclaimed literary journal Shenandoah is available at shenandoahliterary.org. The digital version - Volume 61, Number 1 of the journal - features poetry by Denise Duhamel, Brendan Galvin and Steve Gehrke, prose by Alyson Hagy, Cathryn Hankla, Betty Adcock and Marsha McSpadden. The homepage also includes a Poem of the Week, an Archive Feature of the Month, audio files of contributors reading their work, an essay on featured artist, William Dunlap; brief and extended reviews and a rotating series of 100 arresting quotations. Those seeking information about submissions, prizes and the publication's history - from Tom Wolfe through Flannery O'Connor and W. H. Auden up to Rita Dove and Charles Wright- will find a wealth of information on the site. Further links reveal a description of the WLU English Department's Internship in Literary Editing program, along with comments by both the winter 2011 interns and recent graduates. All aspects of the journal are interactive and invite reader comment. Finally, Shenandoah's blog "Snopes" will introduce provocative topics and encourage readers to engage in discussion. Bloggers will include staff members, interns and special guests. After the transition hiatus, the staff will resume reading submissions in all genres beginning October 1.

A Short History of Shenandoah in print.

For over half a century Shenandoah has been publishing splendid poems, stories, essays and reviews which display passionate understanding, formal accomplishment and serious mischief.

Founded in 1950 by a group of Washington and Lee University faculty and students, Shenandoah has achieved a wide reputation as one of the country's premier literary magazines. Work from the magazine's pages has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Poems, Best American Essays, Best American Spiritual Writing, The O'Henry Prize, New Stories from the South and The Pushcart Prize, as well as numerous other anthologies and quite literally thousands of collections by the original authors. Recent issues have featured Pulitzer winners Natasha Trethewey, Claudia Emerson and Ted Kooser, as well as fiction by James Lee Burke, George Singleton, Alyson Hagy, Chris Offutt, Bret Anthony Johnston and Pam Durban.

From the Snopes Blog

Bravo
Shenandoah’s very own editor, R. T. Smith, is a poet. But you probably already knew that. What you might not have heard is that his poem “Shades” is the poem of the week at reduxlitjournal.blogspot.com, and his poem “Within Shouting … Continue reading →
Holy… what?
Professor Smith wrote in an earlier blog about the utilization of “I swan” in order to avoid using a stronger oath. His blog left me thinking what phrases I use in order to avoid committing a social error. The only … Continue reading →
Top Ten Reasons for Banning Books by Ethnic Minorities?
Whenever a community of any sort starts banning books, you know they’re afraid of something, usually themselves. But perhaps the Arizona illuminati deserve a little sympathy. After all, there could be reasons for forbidding the teaching of books whose authors … Continue reading →

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News

Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet to Give Reading at Washington and Lee
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey will give a reading at Washington and Lee University on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 4:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium of Leyburn Library. She will read from her earlier works and from her forthcoming collection Thrall. Trethewey’s reading is free and open to the public. A book signing will be held [...]
Shenandoah announces winner of Graybeal-Gowen Award
Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review has named Margaret Mackinnon the winner of the 2011 Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Award for her poem, “Writing on the Window.” The 2011 Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Award, a $500 prize, is awarded to a poet born or living in Virginia. This year’s award was judged by the Poet Laureate of Virginia, [...]
Shenandoah Editor Talks Writing and the South
R.T. Smith When the online journal Portal del Sol asked what advice he would give young writers about crafting a career that includes writing his own work plus editing a literary journal, R.T. Smith, editor of Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Review, offered this analogy: "It’s like dog-sledding uphill; it can be done, but you have to [...]