Dear Reader,
I’m happy to report that it has been yet another remarkable year for The Georgia Review (GR). Our fall 2023 title for the Georgia Review Books series with University of Georgia Press, Tripas, by Brandon Som, has won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and been listed as a finalist for the National Book Award. We were also recognized as a finalist for Best Fiction at the National Magazine Awards, a category we won just two years ago. Yet we are equally enthused about the accomplishments of our emerging writers. For instance, Helene Achanzar’s poem “O My Worry, I Reach for Your Hand” has been included in this year’s Best New Poets anthology. And the winner of this year’s Georgia Review Prose Prize, chosen by judge Danielle Evans, is a debut publication. When we say we support writers at every stage of their careers, we mean it.
We receive up to ten thousand submissions a year, from authors all over the world. Each one is read by a full-time GR editor with deep knowledge of literary tradition and contemporary currents. We believe that editorial practice is an art and regularly collaborate with authors to help them realize their ambitions for their literary works. In addition to the accolades mentioned above, pieces published by GR have won National Magazine Awards, Pushcart Prizes, and PEN America’s Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. GR authors regularly appear in the various Best American anthologies. Knowing that authors need financial support to create the work that means so much to readers, we pay competitive rates for everything we publish. We also bring a select number of them to Athens for readings and lectures, which provide an honorarium and introduce them to new audiences.
These events are always free and open to the public. More than 250 guests recently packed Athens’ legendary 40 Watt Club for a reading by Hanif Abdurraqib and Xinyue Huang. Some even drove from out of state to hear the authors. Beforehand, we hosted a book club featuring Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year at a local high school. We brought Jennine Capó Crucet and Brian Truong to our local library this past academic year and supported events with Hua Hsu and Alexander Chee, among other programming.
GR is also an important resource for UGA students hoping to pursue careers in publishing, which can be a challenge for those living outside some of the major metropolitan hubs. Our undergraduate interns and graduate editorial assistants get hands-on experience with all stages of the publishing process. Several have gone on to jobs in the industry, as editors or other publishing professionals, who now serve as role models and contacts for the next generation of UGA students.
The University of Georgia generously covers our staff’s salaries, but we still rely on readers like you to pay our writers, print our issues, and bring our programs to our communities in the state and around the country. All donations go straight to these literary endeavors. So please consider a tax-deductible donation, if you can—we are a unit of UGA, a 501(c)(3) organization. A donation of $56 dollars covers the payment for a sonnet, $76 for a villanelle. A recurring donation of $40 a month can pay one of our artists for a folio publication. One thousand dollars would significantly offset an author visit.
To give, use this link to pledge your support. If you’d prefer to use check, please mail it to 320 S. Jackson St., Athens, GA, 30602. We will send you a free GR patch by artist Yaron Michael Hakim as a thank you gift for a donation of $75 or more. For $150 or more, we will send you one of our new Georgia Review hats. Check them out on our website.
Any amount is helpful. We thank you for whatever it is you give, however you support The Georgia Review. Whether it’s through subscriptions, purchases, donations, attendance, and/or good will, it is the continued support of each of you that keeps us going.
Sincerely,
Gerald Maa
Editor
The Georgia Review