TriQuarterly to be Shut Down after 45 Years
By Celeste Ng
Some sad news: recently, we heard that venerable literary journal
TriQuarterly was transitioning to an online-only format. It’s sad enough to think that one of the oldest and most respected literary mags would no longer be in print, but there’s more to the story, as shown in this email from Ian Morris, TriQuarterly’s associate editor:
I just wanted you all know that as of spring 2010 after forty-five years TriQuarterly magazine will cease to exist. Susan Hahn and myself were notified of this fact yesterday just hours before the press release announcing the decision was sent out.
After terminating TriQuarterly’s print operation and our editorial positions next April, Northwestern University will be giving the name TriQuarterly to an online “open source” student-run journal in the university’s department of continuing studies. While this decision was made without our prior knowledge and without our input, we had been approached at one point about turning the journal into an online entity, and we suggested at the time that we did not believe that TriQuarterly as we have known it would survive, much less thrive, in that format.
TriQuarterly is one of the most acclaimed literary journals out there–it printed early work by many now-famous writers, including Amy Hempel’s first published short story, the masterpiece “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried”–so this is heartbreaking. And on a personal note, TriQuarterly was the first journal to accept a story of mine–I still remember the disbelief and delight I felt when its editor, Susan Hahn called me to deliver the news. So I’m shocked that it’s ending, and that it’s ending this way. I understand that times are tough, and that universities everywhere are cutting back. And I’m all for student-run publications, but to change the format and content so drastically and still give the journal the name “TriQuarterly” seems downright disingenuous. It sounds like this decision wasn’t handled gracefully or considerately, and it’s a shame that Associate Editor Ian Morris, Editor Susan Hahn, and such an excellent journal were treated in this way.
Via The Practicing Writer. Thanks, Erika, for letting us know about this.
I live in Evanston, and Northwestern has always seemed to me to be more interested in producing wealthy alumni than in supporting the arts. Of course, there are hybrids (e.g. Stephen Colbert = art + money), but I doubt many cuts are being made at the Kellogg School of Management.
The demise of the TriQuarterly Review is upsetting for so many reasons. But what really sticks in my craw is that they are planning to keep the same name for a totally different publication, one produced in a different medium by a different staff who (according to Ian Morris’s email) will have vastly different editorial qualifications. Will this new publication be able to draw the same quality of submissions? Will they be able to pay authors for their work? Isn’t re-using the old TriQuarterly’s identity some sort of copyright violation? (Ah, but I guess the people who own said copyright are the ones who have made this decision. It’s quite a reality check, thinking about who owns a publication and its name.)
At the very least, this choice would intentionally mislead both writers interested in submitting work and the journal’s readers. I hope the powers-that-be will reconsider and at least give this online student-run mag a new name.
And of course I hope they’ll consider retaining the TriQuarterly, whether in print or online, and its top-rate, experienced team. I expect that for budgetary, practical, and conservation reasons, we are moving in the eventual direction of housing many quality literary publications online (just look at the marvelous The Collagist and Wag’s Revue!), but whatever its medium, a reputable journal/review still needs to have a professional editorial and production staff.