The Missouri Review

About The Missouri Review

The Missouri Review is a quarterly literary magazine published by the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, with its website at missourireview.com. Founded in 1978 and led by editor-in-chief Speer Morgan since 1979, it is one of America's most prestigious literary quarterlies, publishing fiction, poetry, nonfiction, interviews, and features selected from roughly 12,000 submissions a year. The magazine is nonprofit and noncommercial — it takes no advertising — and its contributors have been anthologized more than 100 times in the Best American series, the O. Henry Prize Anthology, and the Pushcart Prize. It also runs the annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize, awarding $15,000 across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Overview

Each quarterly issue of The Missouri Review contains approximately five new stories, three new poetry features, and two essays, chosen from the flood of unsolicited manuscripts the magazine receives. Writers Digest's market spotlight has described it as an award-winning literary publication featuring fiction, poetry, nonfiction, features, and interviews, and the journal's editors say their mission is to have "helped shape the contemporary literary scene by offering the finest work of today's most important writers and by discovering the brightest new voices in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry." Because the magazine is noncommercial and accepts no advertising, its editors say they "can afford to be complete idealists" in what they publish — a rare freedom in literary publishing that has defined its character for nearly five decades.

Founding in 1978

The Missouri Review was founded in 1978 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, the brainchild of faculty in the university's English department, including Speer Morgan, a professor of English at the university since 1972. In its earliest years the magazine operated on a shoestring: Morgan has recalled that in 1985 the journal had "a tiny budget" and was "very dependent" on grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, which he had begun applying for early in the magazine's history — a natural step, since he had served on the NEA's Literature Panel in the late 1970s. Those early grants were, in Morgan's words, what allowed the magazine to survive its difficult first decade and build the reputation it enjoys today.

Speer Morgan's editorship

Speer Morgan, who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, has been associated with The Missouri Review from its inception and has served as its editor-in-chief since 1979 — one of the longest editorial tenures in American literary publishing. Under his leadership the magazine has co-administered grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, the Missouri Arts Council, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and the City of Columbia Office of Cultural Affairs. Morgan is himself an accomplished writer: the author of five novels and a collection of short stories, the editor of three other books, a past recipient of an NEA Fellowship for Fiction, and winner of an American Book Award for his 1998 novel The Freshour Cylinders. In 1985 he created the Missouri Review Trust, the journal's endowment, which has been the focus of a major fundraising effort.

The Mahfouz story

One of the most storied episodes in the magazine's history came during its lean years, when the editors received a piece of fiction from Naguib Mahfouz. At the time, Morgan has recalled, Mahfouz was a relatively unknown writer in the English-speaking world; the editors published the story simply "because it was good." A couple of years later, Mahfouz became the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The episode has become emblematic of the magazine's editorial philosophy: publish the best work on its merits, regardless of the author's reputation, and let literary history catch up. It is the kind of discovery that a noncommercial, idealist editorial stance makes possible.

What each issue contains

A typical issue of The Missouri Review is built around five new short stories, three poetry features, and two essays of general-interest nonfiction. The poetry features are a signature element: rather than scattering individual poems, the magazine presents six to fourteen pages of poetry by each of three to five poets per issue, giving readers a substantial encounter with each writer's work. Short stories typically run between 2,000 and 9,000 words, though the editors note that anything longer or shorter "must be truly exceptional to be published." Nonfiction submissions face no restrictions on length or topic, but the editors advise writers to familiarize themselves with nonfiction from previous issues. The magazine pays $40 per printed page.

The Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize

Since the early 1990s The Missouri Review has run the annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize, one of the richest literary prizes offered by an American magazine: a total of $15,000 is awarded each year, with a $5,000 first prize in each of three categories — fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. All three winners also receive publication in the magazine and an invitation to a reception and reading in their honor. The prize has launched careers: in 2018, for example, the fiction prize was won by Amanda Baldeneaux for "Salt Land," her first-ever published story, which appeared alongside the winning nonfiction essay and winning poetry entry in the spring 2019 issue. Every entrant receives a one-year digital subscription to the magazine.

Anthology recognition

Few literary magazines can match The Missouri Review's record in the annual anthologies. New, emerging, and mid-career writers whose work has appeared in the journal have been anthologized more than 100 times in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Poetry, the O. Henry Prize Anthology, and the Pushcart Prize. That record is a measure of the editors' eye: the magazine consistently identifies work that the broader literary world later confirms as the year's best. For writers, an appearance in the Missouri Review carries the weight of that history — it signals that a story, essay, or group of poems has passed one of the most demanding editorial filters in the country.

The submissions landscape

The Missouri Review receives about 12,000 submissions each year, and its acceptance rate is under one percent, placing it among the most selective literary magazines in the United States. Writers can submit online through the magazine's submissions manager or by post to its offices at McReynolds Hall on the University of Missouri campus; there is a small fee for electronic submissions. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, provided writers notify the magazine if the work is accepted elsewhere. The standard response time is about ten to twelve weeks. The magazine also accepts entries to its annual Editors' Prize contest, with an entry fee that includes a digital subscription and, in some years, a book from the magazine's own imprint, TMR Books.

Students, the press, and the university

The magazine is deeply embedded in the University of Missouri's academic life. Its offices sit in McReynolds Hall, where faculty and students work together in a real-world publishing environment — a model that Morgan later extended when he was named director of the reimagined University of Missouri Press in 2012, a role he took on while continuing as editor of the Missouri Review. Graduate students and interns help edit manuscripts and produce the magazine under faculty supervision, giving them hands-on experience in literary publishing. The university's support, combined with the magazine's endowment trust and its grants from arts agencies, sustains the noncommercial model that lets the editors publish purely on literary merit.

Website and digital presence

The magazine's website at missourireview.com carries the journal's digital editions, submission guidelines, contest information, and audio recordings of digital issues, along with essays, interviews, and features that extend the print quarterly online. The site also hosts the magazine's blog and forewords, including recent editorials by Speer Morgan on the state of literature and the cost of living. For readers, writers, and subscribers, the website is the front door to nearly five decades of one of America's most decorated literary quarterlies — a magazine that has, since 1978, made its home in Columbia, Missouri, and its reputation on the quality of the writing alone.