History

Shenandoah was founded in 1950 by a group of Washington and Lee University faculty members and undergraduates, Tom Wolfe among them. For a brief time it was primarily an undergraduate magazine, but under the leadership of student editor Tom Carter, Shenandoah became a quarterly, publishing a cast of international writers including e e cummings, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, James Merrill, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, and Flannery O’Connor. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Washington and Lee faculty member James Boatwright expanded the journal and published occasional theme issues, including a thirty-fifth anniversary anthology. After Boatwright’s death in 1988, Dabney Stuart took over as editor. In 1995, R. T. Smith was selected as the magazine’s first full-time editor. In 2011, Shenandoah moved online, and is now a web magazine that publishes semiannually. In August 2018, after the retirement of R. T. Smith, Beth Staples took over as editor. Shenandoah is now part of W&L’s English Department and, under Beth’s direction, is supported by a class of undergraduate interns studying editing and publishing.

Former editors include Tom Wolfe, Tom Carter, James Boatwright, Dabney Stuart, and R. T. Smith. Former student workers include Mark Richard, Christian Wiman, Matthew Neill Null, and Rebecca Makkai.

 

Mission

The editors believe that reading through the perspective of another person, persona, or character is one of the ways we practice empathy, expand our understanding of the world, and experience new levels of awareness. Shenandoah aims to showcase a wide variety of voices and perspectives in terms of gender identity, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, nationality, regionality, sexuality, and educational background. We’re excited to consider short stories, essays, excerpts of novels in progress, poems, comics, and translations of all the above. For more information, see our submission guidelines.

 

Masthead

Editor
Beth Staples

Nonfiction Editor
DW McKinney

Poetry Editor
Lesley Wheeler

Comics Editor
Chris Gavaler

Translations Editor
Seth Michelson

Fiction Editor
Frederica Morgan Davis

Art Editor
Sarah Audsley

Special Features Editor
Nadeen Kharputly

Associate Poetry Editor
Siew David Hii

Associate Prose Editors
Will Shaw
Marissa Castrigno

Managing Editor
Charity Corman

Web Designer
Jeff Barry, Adem Khelifi

Blog Editor
Kate Keeley

Social Media Editors
Erika Kengni, Alyssa Sanchez-Sine

Readers
Marissa Castrigno, Mara Erdman, Madeleine Gavaler, Moriah Katz, aureleo sans

Interns
Kathryn Cover, Sydney Devory, Ryan Doty, Arden Floyd, Jed Heald, Eli Hirshberg, Katherine Hudson, Adelaide Loving, Courtney Packer, Derek Qu, Kalli Walsh

Logo Designer
Julian Montague, Montague Projects

 

The Graybeal-Gowen Prize

The Graybeal-Gowen Prize honors poets living in or born in Virginia, as well as those with long-term residency in the state in the past. One poem will be selected each year to receive the $1000 prize and will be published in the magazine. The Graybeal-Gowen Prize was established to honor the memory of WLU graduate and lover of poetry, Howerton Gowen. Past winners include Emma Aylor, Nancy Schoenberger, Judith McCombs, Margaret Mackinnon, Elizabeth Murawski, Kevin Hart, and Jennifer Key. See our Submit page for more details about when and how to enter.