>I have several copies of StoryQuarterly on my shelves. It was an annual publication run by M.M.M. Hayes and it was a great credit, for thos who could place stories there. A couple of years ago, writers were surprised to learn that Narrative Magazine, the online publication edited by Tom Jencks and Carol Edgarian that writers love to hate but would kill to get into, was going to be taking over StoryQuarterly and would run the two magazines in parallel, with a quarterly online edition supplementing StoryQuarterly’s annual print issue. That notion never made sense to me and, in fact, it never came to pass. Instead, StoryQuarterly just disappeared (although it’s old website, www.storyquarterly.com, will take you to the Narrative website).
But today I was browsing the exhibitors that are scheduled to appear at AWP 2009 in Chicago next month and I noticed that “MFA at Rutgers” is sharing a table with “StoryQuarterly.” I checked on the web and read all about the new MFA program at Rutgers that Jayne Anne Phillips is directing, but that didn’t answer my question. Then I Googled “MFA at Rutgers” AND “StoryQuarterly” and made a very interesting discovery.
According to this press release, Rutgers University — Camden acquired StoryQuarterly in October. They plan to continue the annual publication and also plan an online publication that was supposed to have begun in the fall. Following the links, I got to a new website for StoryQuarterly, although it doesn’t give much information about how the revived magazine will operate, other than to say that Marie Hayes will continue as a consultant.
I would love to know the full story of what happened with Narrative, so if anyone knows, please post a comment!
Update #1: I sent an email to Narrative and got a reply confirming that Narrative had taken over the publication of StoryQuarterly in March 2007, and informing me that they had no plans to distribute the magazine at AWP. Huh? When I responded by sending them a link to the Rutgers-Camden Press Release, they came back to me again and said I should contact Rutgers for more information. Okay. I did. Haven’t heard back yet.
>Hey Cliff:
I just went in search of StoryQuarterly, or the remains of it, and just kept following links indefinitely (that’s how I stumbled on your comments). I was remembering an encouraging response from them from some time back (clearly quite a long time back) and wanted to follow up–but, there’s no (one) there there.
I saw the Rutgers reference and got my hopes up, but no go.
Were they at AWP after all? Keep us posted on any further sleuthing.
–Ginny Pye
Richmond, VA
>Ginny, the link to the Rutgers site for SQ is above:
StoryQuarterly. They were indeed at AWP and MMM Hayes is involved with them again in some capacity, so try that link.