Periodical Ramblings (5)

Prairie Schooner

     Prairie Schooner is one of those periodicals you would have noticed in libraries that had dark shelving and lamps, and to which you would have been drawn by the good title. It has been around for over ninety years and, unlike most literary magazines, could be around a lot longer. It is published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where the labour is supplied by those in the English Department. That, in and of itself, is no guarantee of longevity these days, but Prairie Schooner has a patron and the Glenna Luschei Fund for Excellence ensures that it is endowed in perpetuity.

     It is a literary little magazine which means that it contains a lot of poetry and fiction, along with some interviews and reviews. You can subscribe to the quarterly for $28 (US) and you can have a peek at what it provides here. While most of the magazine is safely behind a firewall, one can look at the accompanying blog and read reviews and “Poetry News in Review.” As well, the journal supports an annual “Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction.”

     Canadian readers can be assured that it does have some Canadian content and accepts contributions from Canadians. Back in 1993, “Prairie Schooner advertised widely throughout Canada in literary journals and writers’ newsletters, sent letters to dozens of women in an attempt to find the best, the most interesting, the most gifted and original and crafty (archaic: skillful, dexterous) women writers in Canada.” The result was an entire issue on “Canadian Women Writers,” which also includes an interview with Margaret Atwood (Vol.67, No.4, Winter, 1993). Thirty years before that issue there was one devoted to Malcolm Lowry which also includes an essay by Earle Birney (Vol. 37, No.4, Winter, 1963). More recently, Canadian sports fans should see the issue devoted to sports, (Winter, 2015) where you will find a poem about Jordin Tootoo. Foodies will also find a special issue devoted to that subject and an essay about herring and Grand Manan island (Winter, 2016).

     If you are an ardent nationalist, unwilling to read anything published south of Point Pelee, you have a Canadian option - Prairie Fire: A Canadian Magazine of New Writing. 

Post Script:

     If you are curious about the type of person who funds such a literary endeavour you can learn more about Glenna Luschei (also known as Glenna Berry-Horton) by consulting Vol. 78, No.4, 2004 of Prairie Schooner. Apart from being generous, she also looks to be quite interesting. Among other hobbies, interests and vocations she is an avocado rancher.

     The university close by (Western) has a fairly good print run from 1927 to around 1980, but these volumes are all in a storage facility. Electronic access is provided to both the back and current issues via various electronic vendors such as JSTOR and Project Muse.

     I will offer this slight bonus to the bibliophiles among my many readers. If you go looking more deeply for Prairie Schooner, you will learn that there are a couple of others produced by those who also thought the title attractive. They were newsletters published by people who found themselves in the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930s. You can learn more here.