The Southern Review
- Dec 18, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 15, 2025
The Southern Review, founded at Louisiana State University in 1935, has shaped American literature through its exacting editorial standards and its long record of publishing work that endures. From its remarkable first issue featuring Wallace Stevens and Aldous Huxley to its continued support of emerging writers through rigorous open submissions and annual awards, the journal has served as both a historical archive and a contemporary guide to serious literary craft. Its pages chart nearly a century of evolving style and thought, securing its place as one of the most influential literary magazines in the United States.
Founded in 1935 at Louisiana State University, The Southern Review entered the literary landscape with an ambition rare for its time. Conceived by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks, and supported directly by Governor Huey Long’s investment in LSU, the journal emerged from a confluence of literary vision and state politics. This unusual alliance allowed the magazine to launch with a scale and seriousness that few periodicals could match. Its first issue made that intention unmistakable, publishing work by Aldous Huxley, Wallace Stevens, Katherine Anne Porter, and Randall Jarrell—an opening statement that positioned the publication far beyond the expectations of a regional journal.
Although deeply tied to its Southern roots, the magazine’s early mission carried a global dimension. Warren and Brooks sought to document the cultural and intellectual life of the South while placing it in conversation with international currents. That dual focus shaped the journal’s earliest decades, during which it published foundational work by Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, and other writers who helped define Southern literature for generations.
The magazine’s trajectory has been shaped by interruption as much as continuity. World War II forced publication to pause in 1942, leaving behind a brief but influential run. Its revival in 1965 under the editorship of Lewis P. Simpson marked a new chapter that preserved the original vision while expanding the journal’s reach. This second era guided the magazine to national prominence through careful editorial work and an unapologetic devotion to literary quality.
Across its long history, The Southern Review has published writers who later received major national and international honors, including Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards. Its pages have also welcomed work by figures such as Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, and Seamus Heaney, reflecting an editorial judgment that looks beyond geography to the strength and necessity of the writing itself.
The journal’s influence now extends well beyond print. Its readings, festival appearances, and digital initiatives create opportunities for readers to engage directly with the work and the writers shaping it. Through these efforts, The Southern Review continues to serve as a meeting ground for established authors and new voices, preserving its legacy while helping to define the next chapter of American literature.
Across nearly a century, the publication has acted as both a steward of literary heritage and a catalyst for literary change. Its distinctive history—marked by bold beginnings, political entanglements, wartime interruption, and sustained resurgence—has shaped a journal that remains essential to the study and practice of contemporary writing.
Publishing Legacy
The publishing record of The Southern Review offers one of the clearest maps of how American literature has developed across the last century. The journal has served as an early testing ground for writers whose work later reshaped national and international conversations, and its editorial archive reflects a long-standing ability to recognize consequential writing before it gains wider attention.
One of the lesser-known strengths of the magazine is the breadth of its early editorial reach. Alongside its foundational role in bringing Southern voices into national view, the journal’s editors consistently sought international work that challenged prevailing assumptions about form and subject. This willingness to publish across borders helped create a catalogue that reads less like a regional record and more like an evolving atlas of twentieth-century literature.
Many pieces that first appeared in its pages have since become fixtures in academic syllabi and literary histories. Early fiction by writers such as Peter Taylor and Andrew Lytle demonstrated the subtlety and structural intelligence later associated with the Southern literary renaissance. Work by poets including Robert Penn Warren and James Dickey revealed emerging stylistic shifts long before those movements were named. The magazine also published early essays and translations that introduced American readers to writers working outside the mainstream, expanding the field’s sense of what counted as “American” writing.
The journal’s ability to identify lasting work persists in its contemporary issues. Recent decades have seen The Southern Review publish writers whose pieces later reappeared in major national anthologies or served as the foundation for award-winning books. This pattern reflects an editorial approach rooted in careful reading rather than trend-seeking, allowing the publication to bring forward voices of lasting consequence.
The magazine’s archive—spanning nearly a century, two distinct eras of publication, and a wide network of writers—has become a resource for scholars and editors tracing the evolution of American literary thought. Many of the journal’s most influential works gained renewed attention after their initial publication, demonstrating the magazine’s role not only as a venue for new writing but as a site where literary history is actively shaped, recorded, and reconsidered.
Commitment to Emerging Writers
The Southern Review’s influence rests not only on the distinguished names in its archive but on its attentiveness to writers who have not yet entered the broader literary conversation. The magazine approaches its open submissions with the same seriousness it applies to solicited work, giving early-career writers a genuine chance to be read without the filters that narrow opportunity elsewhere. Many contributors have published their first nationally recognized pieces in its pages, often before securing an agent or completing a book.
The editors read for clarity of vision rather than résumé. This approach allows the journal to detect writers who are still forming their style but already demonstrate authority on the page. Contributors frequently cite their first acceptance from The Southern Review as the moment when their work began to attract the attention of publishers and mentors who recognized its potential.
The magazine’s quarterly rhythm supports this commitment. Each issue juxtaposes emerging voices with writers whose work already holds a place in the contemporary canon, creating a space where new talent is presented with the same confidence and editorial care as established authors. This pairing has helped many younger writers find readerships that might otherwise take years to reach.
Through its submissions process, editorial practices, and willingness to publish work that has not yet found its category, The Southern Review continues to offer one of the most meaningful entry points for writers seeking to build a serious literary career.
Annual Writing Contests
The Southern Review’s annual awards extend the magazine’s editorial rigor beyond its quarterly issues, creating a series of entry points for writers whose work demonstrates clarity, ambition, and technical command. These prizes function as more than accolades. They often mark the moment a writer’s work begins circulating within the broader world of agents, editors, and anthologists who follow the journal closely.
The James Olney Fiction Prize: The Southern Review awards this prize annually to a short story that exhibits structural precision and sustained narrative control. Winners receive $1,500 and journal publication, which often brings them to the attention of editors scouting fresh talent. In 2020, the prize honored Arao Ameny for her story “Home Is a Woman,” published in the Spring 2020 issue, marking her first major literary recognition.
The Ava Leavell Haymon Poetry Prize: This award recognizes a single poem that demonstrates mastery of line, image, and formal movement, offering the winner $1,000 and placement in the journal. Past recipients include poets whose work later earned state or national honors—Ava Leavell Haymon herself served as Louisiana Poet Laureate.
The Creative Nonfiction Award: Presented annually for narrative nonfiction that combines intellectual depth with story-driven structure, this contest awards $1,500 and publication in The Southern Review. Winning manuscripts frequently go on to form the seeds of major book projects or essays featured in national essay collections.
Emerging Writer Spotlight: Dedicated to work from authors early in their careers, this feature offers publication and sustained editorial interaction—mentorship rare in journal publishing. Many spotlight authors credit the designation as the moment their writing began to receive serious industry notice.
Editors’ Choice Awards: Drawn from the full range of submissions each year, these awards highlight pieces that stayed with the editorial staff long after their first read. Recipients often appear later in anthologies such as The Best American Series or the Pushcart Prize Anthologies, reflecting the journal’s ability to identify work of lasting relevance.
Reader’s Award for Best Story: Voted on by the journal’s subscribers, this prize recognizes the story that most strongly resonated with The Southern Review’s readership. The public nature of the award adds exposure beyond typical journal channels and can lead to renewed interest in both the author and the piece.
Through these programs, The Southern Review maintains a structure that supports writers at pivotal moments in their careers. The awards deepen the magazine’s long-standing role as a place where serious work is both challenged and championed—and where a single publication credit can alter the trajectory of a writing life.
For more on writing contests, literary awards, and career-building opportunities at The Southern Review, continue reading: The Southern Review: Annual Writing Contests, Literary Awards, and Opportunities.
Its Place in Contemporary Literature
The Southern Review holds a rare position in American letters because its pages show a continuous record of serious literary work across nearly a century. Each issue reflects an editorial attention that resists trend and rewards depth and technical command. As a result, the journal functions both as a historical document and as a current measure of where ambitious writing is moving.
Its influence reaches well beyond the writers it helped bring into view. Teachers, editors, and scholars regularly turn to its archive to trace shifts in form and sensibility, and the journal’s selections often signal changes in the wider literary landscape long before those changes reach the commercial sphere. The publication’s steady presence has helped define expectations for what strong fiction, poetry, and nonfiction should achieve.
Through disciplined editorial practice and a long-standing commitment to work of genuine artistic weight, The Southern Review has secured a lasting role in the field. Its pages continue to influence how writers think on the sentence level, how readers understand the contours of American writing, and how the literary community measures excellence.