''Reed Magazine'' is an annual

literary journal A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters ...

published by

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

. Two semesters of the Department of English and Comparative Literature's 133 class (comprising graduate and undergraduate students) solicit, edit, and promote the magazine for each year. It is the oldest literary journal based in California.Reed magazine delivers 'Goosebumps' by Michael Le Roy, ''Spartan Daily'', April 28, 2008 The journal prints

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

, and prose ( fiction and

nonfiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with bei ...

). It also sponsors the

Edwin Markham Edwin Markham (born Charles Edward Anson Markham; April 23, 1852 – March 7, 1940) was an American poet. From 1923 to 1931 he was Poet Laureate of Oregon. Life Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon, and was the youngest of 10 children; ...

Prize for Poetry, the

John Steinbeck Short Story Award The John Steinbeck Award for Fiction is an annual short-story competition by '' Reed Magazine'' of San José State University. The award was founded in 2002 by Chris Fink, who was at the time the faculty advisor for Reed. The submissions window ...

, the Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction, the

Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as ''Al ...

Award for Art, and the Emerging Voices Contest for

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together ...

high school students.

History

Tracing its heritage to 1867 as The Acorn, the journal started as a mere pamphlet published by students of the California State Normal School, the precursor of San José State University. It was known as The Normal Pennant in 1898 (a reference to the

California State Normal School The California State Normal School was a teaching college system founded on May 2, 1862, eventually evolving into San José State University in San Jose and the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles. History The school was cr ...

), The Quill in the 1920s and El Portal in the 1930s. In more than a century and a half of publication, the journal’s name evolved until the end of World War II. Then, in 1948, it adopted The Reed, which was later shortened to just Reed. At that time, the magazine was put together by SJSU's literary society, Pegasus, with help from the Associated Student Body. Reed honors James Reed, a survivor of the infamous Donner Party and a prominent citizen of early California. James Reed made a fortune during the Gold Rush and strongly advocated that San José be named the capital of the new state. While he failed in that ambition, he did keep his promise to donate five hundred acres to the state. The current campus of San José State—the oldest public institution of higher education on the West Coast, and the founding institution of the California State University system—now occupies that land. San José has changed a lot since James Reed first settled here. Prune and apricot orchards have given way to skyscrapers and the headquarters of major corporations. A tiny farming community has grown into the tenth largest US city and the nation’s unchallenged center of technological innovation. A small teaching college has evolved into a vibrant university with the most diverse student body in the nation, and an international reputation for excellence. Throughout these changes, Reed has remained a literary hub, publishing fiction, poetry, essays, profiles, and art from around the world. Reed is honored to feature the works of emerging authors alongside notable pieces by literary lions: nonfiction by Pulitzer Prize–winner William Finnegan, verse by U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, fiction by PEN/Faulkner--winner T. C. Boyle, and National Book Award--winner Ursula K. Le Guin. In addition, Reed publishes original profiles of authors connected to the Golden State, examining their take on life and art.

Notable contributors

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

T. C. Boyle Thomas Coraghessan Boyle, also known as T. C. Boyle and T. Coraghessan Boyle (born December 2, 1948), is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published sixteen novels and more than 100 short stories. He won the ...

Paul Calandrino
* Stephen Dixon *

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog '' Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent o ...

William Finnegan William Finnegan is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' and author of works of international journalism. He has specially addressed issues of racism and conflict in Southern Africa and politics in Mexico and South America, as well as poverty ...

Forrest Gander Forrest Gander (born 1956) is an American poet, translator, essayist, and novelist. The A.K. Seaver Professor Emeritus of Literary Arts & Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2019 for ''Be With ...

* Cristina Garcia *

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 199 ...

Brenda Hillman Brenda Hillman (born March 27, 1951 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American poet and translator. She is the author of ten collections of poetry: ''White Dress'', ''Fortress'', ''Death Tractates'', ''Bright Existence'', ''Loose Sugar'', ''Cascadia'', '' ...

Andrew Lam Andrew Lam (born 1964) is a Vietnamese American author and journalist who has written about the Overseas Vietnamese experience. Biography Andrew Lam was born Lâm Quang Dũng in 1964 in South Vietnam. He led a privileged life as the son of Gener ...

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

* Cathleen Miller *

Nayomi Munaweera Nayomi Munaweera is a Sri Lankan American writer and author of '' Island of a Thousand Mirrors'', which won Commonwealth Book Prize for the Asian Region in 2013, and '' What Lies Between Us'' (2016), which won the Sri Lankan National Book Award ...

Naomi Shihab Nye Naomi Shihab Nye ( ar, نعومي شهاب ناي; born March 12, 1952) is an American poet, editor, songwriter, and novelist. Born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, she began composing her first poetry at the age of six. In total ...

Emmy Pérez Emmy Pérez is a Chicanx poet and writer originally from Santa Ana, California, United States. She was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 2017. She has lived in the borderlands of Texas since 2000, where she ha ...

Mark Slouka Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

* Michael Ernest Sweet *

Arthur Sze Arthur Sze (; ; born December 1, 1950) is an American poet, translator, and professor. Since 1972, he has published ten collections of poetry. Sze's ninth collection ''Compass Rose'' (2014) was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Sz ...

Rodrigo Toscano Rodrigo Toscano (born 1964 in San Diego) is an American poet and labor & environment activist. He has worked with the Labor Institute since 2000 as a director of national projects. He is also a lifelong amateur classical pianist. Life Origin ...

Vendela Vida Vendela Vida (born September 6, 1971) is an American novelist, journalist, editor, screenplay writer, and educator. She is the author of multiple books, has worked as a writing teacher, and is a founder and editor of '' The Believer'' magazine. ...

Al Young Albert James Young (May 31, 1939 – April 17, 2021) was an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. He was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2005 to 2008. Young's many books includ ...

Joan Eyles Johnson
* Arisa White * Kenny Fries *

Mary Elizabeth Parker Mary Elizabeth Parker (b. Schenectady, New York) is an American poet. She is best known for her collection, ''The Sex Girl'' (Urthona Press), which won the Urthona Poetry Prize in 1999. Her poetry has been widely anthologized in such journals a ...

Kyle Killen Kyle Killen is an American television writer and television producer, producer. He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the critically acclaimed but short-lived television series ''Lone Star (TV series), Lone Star'' (2010), ''Awake (TV ...

Stephen Roger Powers Stephen Roger Powers (born May 19, 1974) is an American poet, writer, and comedian. He is currently Professor of English at Gordon State College (Georgia). Biography Stephen Roger Powers was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He graduated from Univ ...

* Ed Sams *

Mark Wisniewski Pushcart Prize winner and Best American Short Stories author Mark Wisniewski third novel, ''Watch Me Go'' (Penguin Putnam, January 22, 2015), received early praise from Salman Rushdie, Ben Fountain, and Daniel Woodrell. Mark's first novel, ''Con ...

* Walter Griffin * Soma Mei Sheng Frazier

Judges

S= Steinbeck M= Markham R= Rico B= Blair EV= Emerging Voices *= Returning participant

Trivia

* The transition of numbering copies of Reed Magazine from 70 to 150 instead in 2017 was because the literary journal wanted to celebrate its 150th anniversary. **The last copy to use the term volume was Reed 66 **After that, the magazine were labeled as "A literary Mosaic since..." for a couple years.

References

External links