The Virginia Quarterly Review soon will be under new leadership following the retirement of Staige D. Blackford, who is stepping down after 28 years as editor.
Three finalists, selected out of 80 original applicants for the position, currently are being considered to succeed Blackford, a former Rhodes Scholar, press secretary for Virginia Governor Lynwood Holton and Cavalier Daily Editor-in-Chief.
An advisory board will select the next editor for the Review, recommending a candidate for University President John T. Casteen III's approval before the Review's summer issue.
The Virginia Quarterly Review is a national journal of literature and discussion with 3252 paying subscribers. The Journal currently has subscribers across the United States, in England and India, according to Blackford.
Blackford conducted a very successful operation at the publication, colleagues said.
George Garrett, former English Prof. and Virginia's current Poet Laureate, a contributor to the Review since 1962, said that under Blackford, the Review has been able to include a wide variety of literary material, including the essay.
"What he's done with the magazine is maintain its balance where it's not just literary, but it's also one of the last arenas in America for the essay," Garrett said. "The only magazines like it would be Atlantic or Harper's."
Garret added that "Staige has maintained the reputation of the Review, which has been a real contribution to American intellectual life."
Garrett explained that one of the primary distinctions of the Review is its broad literary base.
There are probably a half dozen surviving major quarterly magazines in America -- of those, the VQR has always been right at the top," Garrett said. "It's not exclusively a literary magazine -- it has poetry, it has fiction, it has criticism. It also has history and politics -- the VQR is a magazine of discussion of serious issues in the country and the world."
Blackford said the editing position at the VQR has been very rewarding, with only one minor drawback.
"It's a wonderful job," Blackford said. "You're pretty much your own boss, there's only one disadvantage -- I work in Hotel One and the little disadvantage is it has no john. In summer, desperate people come knocking to ask to use the bathroom!"
Every year, approximately 2,000 short stories are submitted to the Review and only 16 are published.
"I am considering getting a bumper sticker that reads 'Help Stamp Out Creative Writing Programs in America,'" Blackford said. "You've got so many students putting out short stories and there isn't much of a market any more."
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