''Chicago Review'' is a student-run literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and special features in double issues. Three stories published in ''Chicago Review'' have won the O. Henry Award. Work that first appeared in ''Chicago Review'' has also been reprinted in ''

The Best American Poetry 2002 ''The Best American Poetry 2002'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by David Lehman, with poems chosen by guest editor Robert Creeley. The first print run for the book was 30,000. Amy Bracken Sparks, reviewing the book ...

'', '' The Best American Poetry 2004'', and '' The Best American Short Stories 2003''.

Early history

''Chicago Review'' was founded in 1946 by two

graduate students, James Radcliffe Squires and Carrolyn Dillard, in response to what they described as "an exaggerated utilitarianism on the college." They aimed to present a "contemporary standard of good writing" and demanded "that the writers do better than they thought they could." ''Chicago Review'' exclusively published work by students and faculty members of the university until the Fall/Winter issue of 1953, when F.N. "Chip" Karmtaz assumed editorship of the magazine.

Beat poetry censorship controversy

Before censorship by the university administration, ''Chicago Review'' was an early and leading promoter of the Beat Movement in American literature. In the autumn of 1958, it published an excerpt from Burroughs' '' Naked Lunch'', which was judged

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

by the '' Chicago Daily News'' and sparked public outcry; this episode led to the censorship of the following issue, to which the editors responded by resigning and starting a new magazine in which to freely publish Beat fiction. ''Chicago Review'' became the subject of further controversy in 1959, when the

prohibited editor Irving Rosenthal from publishing a winter issue that was to include

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

's ''Sebastian Midnite'', a thirty-page excerpt from William S. Burroughs's '' Naked Lunch'' and a thirty-page work by Edward Dahlberg. The concern of the university was that the work might be deemed obscene. All but one editor quit the paper. Rosenthal, Ginsberg, John Fles, and others responded by founding '' Big Table''; its first issue included ten chapters of ''Naked Lunch''. In the context of the ongoing nationwide conflict between traditional versus Beat fiction, the impact of the creation of ''Big Table'' was such that, as

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

recalled "'what happened at Chicago' became shorthand for some unimaginable subversive threat" among the literature college students at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Special Features

''Chicago Review'' often publishes special features within its issues. In the summer of 1958, it published Volume 12, Number 3 (Issue 12:3) with a special section titled "On Zen" that featured contributions from writers such as Alan Watts and

. Through this issue, ''Chicago Review'' played a significant role in introducing

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

to the American public.Josephine Nock-Hee Park, ''Apparitions of Asia: modernist form and Asian American poetics'', p. 63 Most of the magazine's special features are included in double issues, the first of which was Issue 17:2/3 in 1964. Featuring new Chicago writing and art, the issue included work by poets such as Paul Carroll and Lucien Stryk. Later double issues, such as Issue 38:01/02, ''Contemporary Indian Literatures'' (1992) and Issue 46:3/4, ''New Polish Writing'' (2000), established ''Chicago Review'' as a premier literary magazine for publishing literary translations. Issue 60:3,'' The Infrarrealistas'' (2017), is the first collection of the Infrarealist poets’ Spanish writing in English translation. Other notable features published by ''Chicago Review'' include a special section on Canadian poet Lisa Robertson in Issue 51:4/52:1, an A.R. Ammons feature in Issue 57:1/2, and a special issue on Ed Roberson and Chicago Modernists, Issue 59:4/60:1. ''Chicago Review'' occasionally also publishes triple issues, such as Issue 50:2/3/4, which includes a centenary portfolio on

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

, and Issue 49:3/4 & 50:1, which contains a special section on poet Edward Dorn.

Notable Contributors

Many well-known writers have been published in ''Chicago Review'', both before and after they became famous. Notably, Philip Roth and

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 ...

's work appeared in print for the first time in ''Chicago Review'' while they were both students at the University of Chicago. Other contributors include Henry Miller, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,

, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg,

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

, William Carlos Williams, Anaïs Nin, Charles Simic, James Tate,

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German Americans, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambien ...

, Raymond Carver, Philip Levine, Edward Dorn,

Anne Carson Anne Patricia Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor. Trained at the University of Toronto, Carson has taught classics, comparative literature, and creative writing at universities across ...

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

, E.E. Cummings, Robert Duncan and

Dimitris Lyacos Dimitris Lyacos (; born 19 October 1966) is a Greek writer. He is the author of the ''Z213: Exit, Poena Damni'' trilogy and the composite novel ''Until the Victim Becomes our Own''. Lyacos's work is characterised by its genre-defying form and th ...

References

External links