The Cincinnati Review

The Cincinnati Review
Title	The Cincinnati Review
Discipline	Literary magazine
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
Publisher	University of Cincinnati
Firstdate	2003

The Cincinnati Review is a quarterly American literary magazine based at the University of Cincinnati. It publishes fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and reviews, featuring established and emerging writers from the United States and internationally. The journal has been noted for showcasing a range of voices and attracting contributors who have received major awards and held affiliations with prominent institutions.

History

Founded in 2003, the journal emerged within the milieu of American literary magazines alongside publications such as The Paris Review, Granta, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and The New Yorker. Its development paralleled trends represented by Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, and Conjunctions. Early issues included contributors affiliated with universities like Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Iowa, and Brown University. Over time the magazine published work by writers associated with awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Nobel Prize in Literature, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It evolved through editorial leadership that intersected with programs at University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, Vanderbilt University, Cornell University, and University of Michigan.

Editorial and Staff

Editorial staff have included faculty, graduate students, and staff connected to MFA programs and writing centers such as Iowa Writers' Workshop, Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Stony Brook Southampton, NYU Creative Writing Program, and Columbia University School of the Arts. Guest editors and advisory board members have held posts at institutions like Stanford University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, and Duke University. The masthead has featured editors who previously worked with magazines such as The Believer, Boston Review, American Poetry Review, Fence, and AGNI. Copy editors and managing editors have had internships or fellowships with organizations including National Endowment for the Arts, Academy of American Poets, Poets & Writers, and New York Foundation for the Arts.

Content and Contributors

The journal has published poets, fiction writers, and essayists associated with names such as Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, Seamus Heaney, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Ada Limón, Tracy K. Smith, and Ocean Vuong—as well as emerging authors from programs like MFA Program at Columbia, MFA Program at NYU, Iowa Writers' Workshop, UNC Greensboro, and Florida State University. Contributors have been recipients of honors including the MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Whiting Awards, Rome Prize, Stegner Fellowship, Yaddo residency, and MacDowell Colony. The Review's pages have featured work connected to presses and imprints such as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Random House, Knopf, HarperCollins, Graywolf Press, Copper Canyon Press, Faber and Faber, Picador, and Norton. Reviews have engaged with books from publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Scribner, Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press.

Awards and Recognition

Individual pieces from the magazine have been selected for anthologies and prizes including The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, O. Henry Award, Pushcart Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Forward Prize, Costa Book Awards, and Bret Harte Prize. Contributors have later won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, National Book Award for Poetry, Man Booker Prize, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Women's Prize for Fiction. The magazine itself has been cited in listings by institutions such as Library of Congress, Modern Language Association, Oxford American, and regional arts councils including Ohio Arts Council.

Publication and Distribution

Published quarterly, the journal issues seasonal editions and distributes through academic channels including university bookstores at University of Cincinnati, regional consortia like OhioLINK, independent bookstores such as Strand Bookstore, Powell's Books, City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, and via subscriptions managed through vendors used by Small Press Distribution and Independent Publishers Group. Libraries acquiring the journal include holdings at New York Public Library, Boston Public Library, Folger Shakespeare Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and university libraries at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, and Columbia. The magazine maintains relationships with literary festivals and conferences such as AWP Conference, Brooklyn Book Festival, Miami Book Fair, Portland Book Festival, and Hay Festival.

Notable Issues and Themes

Special issues and thematic clusters have addressed topics resonant with contemporary literary discourse, featuring work touching on migration, identity, memory, and environment. The journal has curated sequences focusing on writers from regions like Appalachia, Midwest, New England, Deep South, and cities including Cincinnati, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Guest-edited portfolios have highlighted translations from languages represented by presses such as New Directions Publishing, Archipelago Books, and Two Lines Press, showcasing poets like Rainer Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda, Anna Akhmatova, Federico García Lorca, and Nikos Kazantzakis in translation.

Reception and Influence

Critics and reviewers in outlets such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, Slate, and The Guardian have noted the journal's contribution to the literary ecosystem alongside peers like Paris Review and The New Yorker. Academics referencing the journal appear in journals such as American Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Contemporary Literature, and PMLA. Alumni contributors have moved into faculty roles at University of Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, and University of Notre Dame, reinforcing networks across creative writing programs and literary organizations.

Category:Literary magazines published in the United States