Epoch
is a triannual American
literary magazine
founded in 1947 and published by
Cornell University
. It has published well-known authors and award-winning work including stories reprinted in
The Best American Short Stories
series and poems later included in
The Best American Poetry
series
.
[1]
It publishes fiction, poetry, essays, graphic art, and sometimes cartoons and screenplays, but no literary criticism or
book reviews
.
[1]
Epoch
is staffed by faculty and graduate students from the English Department creative writing program, and edited by Michael Koch.
Epoch
appears in September, January, and May, with issues generally running 128 to 160 pages.
[1]
History
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The magazine was established in 1947
[2]
by Baxter Hathaway, who arrived at
Cornell University
the year before to start a creative writing program. Initially, the magazine was a literary quarterly staffed by the English department.
[1]
A story from the magazine's first volume was reprinted in
Best American Short Stories
and all of the fiction from that volume was cited in the anthology. In the 1950s and 1960s,
Epoch
featured the first published fiction of
Thomas Pynchon
and
Don DeLillo
, and early stories by
Philip Roth
,
Stanley Elkin
, and
Joyce Carol Oates
.
[1]
Some other poets and writers who have appeared in the magazine are
Jacob M. Appel
,
[3]
Annie Dillard
,
Rick DeMarinis
,
[4]
Jayne Anne Phillips
,
Ron Hansen
,
Andre Dubus
,
Amy Hempel
,
Lee K. Abbott
,
Charles Simic
,
Leslie Scalapino
,
Harriet Doerr
,
Denis Johnson
,
Ron Hansen
,
[5]
John L'Heureux
,
Jorie Graham
,
Micah Perks
, and
Rick Bass
.
[6]
Awards and recognition
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The magazine claims that "all" the major anthologies have reproduced its work, including
Best American Essays
,
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses
,
Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards
,
Editor's Choice Awards
,
Best of the West
, and
New Stories from the South.
[1]
The periodical also won the first O. Henry Award for best magazine of 1997.
[6]
Some stories from
Epoch
that have been reprinted in anthologies had been picked out of the slush pile by MFA students.
[6]
According to the
Cornell Chronicle
, Shannon Ravenel, editor of the anthology
New Stories from the South: The Year's Best
, said of
Epoch
, "It's the best. [...]
Epoch
is just consistently excellent."
[6]
C. Michael Curtis, a senior editor at
The Atlantic Monthly
, said he considers
Epoch
"one of the top literary magazines in the country in terms of the consistent quality of the writing that appears there." Curtis worked on the magazine staff as a graduate student from 1959 to 1963.
[6]
References
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]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Epoch
magazine Web page
, Retrieved February 5, 2007
Archived
December 9, 2006, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Top 50 Literary Magazine"
.
EWR
. Retrieved
August 17,
2015
.
- ^
Volume 64, No 3, 2015
- ^
Volume 62, No 1, 2013
- ^
Volume 55, No. 2, 2006
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Epoch
Harmon, Joshua, "Epoch's anniversary will be celebrated by noted alumni from its pages", article in
The Cornell Chronicle
, September 25, 1997, Retrieved February 5, 2007
External links
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