''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form is a "forum", featuring a lead essay and several responses. ''Boston Review'' also publishes an imprint of books with

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

. The editors in chief are Deborah Chasman and political philosopher Joshua Cohen;

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning writer

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

is the fiction editor. The magazine is published by Boston Critic, Inc., a nonprofit organization. It has received praise from notable intellectuals and writers including

John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the ...

, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,

John Rawls John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral philosophy, moral, legal philosophy, legal and Political philosophy, political philosopher in the Modern liberalism in the United States, modern liberal tradit ...

Naomi Klein Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism and Criticism of capitalism, ca ...

, Robin Kelley,

Martha Nussbaum Martha Nussbaum (; Craven; born May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philos ...

, and Jorie Graham.

History

''Boston Review'' was founded as ''New Boston Review'' in 1975. A quarterly devoted to literature and the arts, the magazine was started by a group that included Juan Alonso, Richard Burgin, and

Anita Silvey Anita Silvey is an American author, editor, and literary critic in the genre of children’s literature. Born in 1947 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Silvey has served as Editor-in-Chief of ''The Horn Book Magazine'' and as vice-president at Hou ...

. In 1976, after the departure of some of the founding editors, the publication was co-edited by Juan Alonso and Gail Pool, and then by Gail Pool and Lorna Condon. In the late seventies, it switched from quarterly to bimonthly publication. In 1980, Arthur Rosenthal became publisher of the magazine, which was renamed ''Boston Review'' and edited by Nick Bromell. Succeeding editors were Mark Silk and then Margaret Ann Roth, who remained until 1991. During the eighties, the focus of the magazine broadened and during the nineties became more politically oriented, while maintaining a strong profile in both fiction and poetry. Joshua Cohen replaced Roth in 1991, and has been editor since then. The full text of ''Boston Review'' has been available online since 1995. Since 1996, thirty books have been published based on articles and forums that originally appeared in the ''Boston Review''. Since 2006,

has been publishing a "''Boston Review'' Books" series. Deborah Chasman joined the magazine as co-editor in 2001. Pulitzer-prize winner

is the current fiction editor; Timothy Donnelly, B. K. Fischer, and Stefania Heim are the poetry editors. In 2010, ''Boston Review'' switched from black and white tabloid to an glossy, all-color format. The same year, it was the recipient of '' Utne Reader'' magazine's Utne Independent Press Award for Best Writing. The magazine switched print formats again in 2017, merging its bimonthly general interest magazine and book publications into quarterly, themed bookazines.

Features

New Democracy Forum

The New Democracy Forum is a special feature of the ''Boston Review''. It offers an arena for fostering and exploring issues regarding politics and policy. A typical forum includes a lead article by an expert and contributions from other respondents. Past forums have covered topics such as making foreign aid work, a strategy to disengage from Iraq, and new economic stress in the middle class.

New Fiction Forum

The New Fiction Forum was created as "a space for wide-ranging dialogue about contemporary fiction, a dialogue founded on a simple premise: that despite the intense commercialism of current publishing, there are original, vital novels published every season and readers to whom such narratives are of the profoundest importance". Past forums include fiction and reviews by Jhumpa Lahiri and Emily Barton.

Fiction contests

The publication sponsors well-regarded annual contests in fiction; past winners include Michael Dorris, Tom Paine, and

Jacob M. Appel Jacob M. Appel (born February 21, 1973) is an American polymath, author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer, and social critic.Nagamatsu, Sequoia "A Few Words with the Ubiquitous Jacob M. Appel" ''Prince Mincer'' Journal http://primemincer.com/ con ...

"Discovery" prize

The annual "Discovery"/''Boston Review'' prize is given for a group of poems by a poet who has not yet published a book. Typically, the prize is awarded to four winners and four runners-up;"Four Poets Officially Discovered in 'Discovery'/Boston Review Contest,"
''

Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'' ...

'' (April 29, 2009). winners read from their work at the 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center. Begun in the 1960s as ''The Nation''/"Discovery" prize, the ''Boston Review'' took over administration of the prize in 2007 when ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' ended its partnership. Previous winners of the "Discovery" prize include

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...

, Emily Hiestand, John Poch, and Martin Walls.

Notable contributors

* Bruce Ackerman, professor of law * Sadik Al-Azm, philosopher *

, poet * Mary Jo Bang, poet * Dan Beachy-Quick, poet *

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

, novelist * Seyla Benhabib, philosopher and political scientist *

John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...

, artist, writer, and critic *

Jagdish Bhagwati Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati (born July 26, 1934) is an Indian-born naturalization, naturalized American economist and one of the most influential trade theorists of his generation. He is a University Professor (Columbia), University Professor of ec ...

, economist * Joseph Biden, US President *

Hans Blix Hans Martin Blix (; born 28 June 1928) is a Swedish diplomat and politician for the Liberal People's Party. He was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs (1978–1979) and later became the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Blix wa ...

, diplomat, UN weapons inspector *

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

, literary scholar * Roberto Bolaño, Chilean novelist and poet * Roger Boylan, novelist and critic *

Lucie Brock-Broido Lucie Brock-Broido born "Lucy Brock" (May 22, 1956 – March 6, 2018) was an American poet, widely acclaimed as one of the most distinctive and influential voices of her generation. Noteworthy for her work as a teacher, Brock-Broido served as ...

, poet * Stephanie Burt, literary scholar * Rafael Campo, poet, doctor and writer *

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...

, poet and politician * Philip N. Cohen, sociologist *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

, linguist and political activist * Juan Cole, historian * Paul Collier, economist * Colin Dayan, professor of American studies * Rita Dove, Poet Laureate of the United States * Khaled Abou El Fadl, professor of law * Owen Fiss, professor of law *

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his ...

, photographer and filmmaker *

, economist * Akbar Ganji, journalist * Michael Gecan, political activist * Vivian Gornick, essayist and critic * Jorie Graham, poet * Lani Guinier, professor of law * Donald Hall, Poet Laureate of the United States * Pamela S. Karlan, professor of law * Elias Khoury, Lebanese novelist and journalist *

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American New Keynesian economics, New Keynesian economist who is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the CUNY Graduate Center, Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He ...

, economist * Jhumpa Lahiri, novelist * Glenn Loury, economist * Tim Maudlin, philosopher * Heather McHugh, poet * Honor Moore, poet * Luis Moreno-Ocampo, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor *

, philosopher * Daniel Olivas, writer, playwright and attorney * Susan Okin, feminist political philosopher * George Packer, journalist * Grace Paley, writer and activist * Gerald Peary, film critic * Marjorie Perloff, literary scholar * Rick Perlstein, historian and political commentator * Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States * Eric Posner, professor of law *

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, computer scientist, and figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He contributed to the studies of philosophy of ...

, philosopher *

, philosopher * Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate of the United States * John Roemer, economist *

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

, feminist poet *

Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...

, philosopher * Nir Rosen, journalist *

Saskia Sassen Saskia Sassen (born January 5, 1947) is a Dutch-American sociologist noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration. She is a professor of sociology at Columbia University in New York City, and the London School of Eco ...

, sociologist * Elaine Scarry, literary scholar * Don Share, poet and literary critic * Charles Simic, Poet Laureate of the United States *

Anne-Marie Slaughter Anne-Marie Slaughter (born September 27, 1958) is an American international lawyer, foreign policy analyst, political scientist, and public commentator. From 2002 to 2009, she was the dean of Princeton University's School of Public and Intern ...

, international affairs scholar *

Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...

, essayist and social critic * Eliot Spitzer, former Governor of New York *

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( ; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

, software developer * Marshall Steinbaum, economist * Nicholas Stern, economist * Alan A. Stone, professor of law, psychologist, and film critic * Mark Strand, Poet Laureate of the United States *

Cass Sunstein Cass Robert Sunstein (born September 21, 1954) is an American legal scholar known for his work in U.S. constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and behavioral economics. He is also ''The New York Times'' best-selling author of ...

, professor of law, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs * Charles Taylor, philosopher *

Charles Tilly Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008) was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the Uni ...

, sociologist *

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

, writer * Hal Varian, economist * Eliot Weinberger, essayist and translator *

Stephen Walt Stephen Martin Walt (born July 2, 1955) is an American political scientist serving as the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. A member of the realist school of international relations, Walt ...

, international affairs scholar * C. D. Wright, poet *

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian and a veteran of World War II. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn ...

, historian and social critic *

Jonathan Zittrain Jonathan L. Zittrain (born December 24, 1969) is an American professor of cyber law, Internet law and the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of co ...

, professor of law

References

External links

* {{Official website
''Boston Review''
– books series on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Literary magazines published in the United States Political magazines published in the United States Quarterly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1975 Magazines published in Boston