Reed Magazine
Reed Magazine is an annual literary journal published by San José State University. Two semesters of the Department of English and Comparative Literature's 133 class solicit, edit, and promote the magazine for each year. It is the oldest literary journal based in California.
The journal prints art, poetry, and prose. It also sponsors the Edwin Markham Prize for Poetry, the John Steinbeck Award for Fiction, the Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction, the Mary Blair Award for Art, and the Emerging Voices Contest for Santa Clara County, California high school students.
History
The earliest student published literary collection to be published by students of the History of [San Jose State University|California State Normal School], was a pamphlet in 1867 named The Acorn. Several literary journals followed The Acorn, including The Class Paper from 1880–82, The Normal Index from 1885-91, and The Normal Pennant from 1898-1909. The schools English department published The Quill from 1925 to 1931 and El Portal from 1932 to 1941. After World War II, in 1948, The Reed Literary Magazine was first published by Pegasus, a literary society at San Jose State, with assistance from the schools Associated Student Body. Its name was later shortened to just Reed Magazine. Reed Magazine claims 1867 as the beginning of its heritage through these prior publications.There is some dispute about the origin of the journal's name, the magazine currently claims that it honors James F. Reed, a survivor of the Donner Party and prominent local citizen who donated the land that would become San Jose States' campus. While others, including the magazine itself at various points, say that name of Reed was derived from a quote by French enlightenment thinker Blaise Pascal:
Reed Magazine has published pieces by Pulitzer Prize winner William Finnegan, U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, PEN/Faulkner winner T. C. Boyle, and National Book Award winner Ursula K. Le Guin.
Notable contributors
- Jacob M. Appel
- T. C. Boyle
- Stephen Dixon
- Cory Doctorow
- William Finnegan
- Forrest Gander
- Cristina Garcia
- Robert Hass
- Brenda Hillman
- Andrew Lam
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Cathleen Miller
- Nayomi Munaweera
- Naomi Shihab Nye
- Emmy Pérez
- Mark Slouka
- Michael Ernest Sweet
- Arthur Sze
- Rodrigo Toscano
- Vendela Vida
- Al Young
- Arisa White
- Kenny Fries
- Mary Elizabeth Parker
- Kyle Killen
- Stephen Roger Powers
- Ed Sams
- Mark Wisniewski
- Walter Griffin
- Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
Trivia
- The transition of numbering copies of Reed Magazine from Issue 70 instead to Issue 150 in 2017 was because the literary journal was celebrating its 150th anniversary.
- *The last copy to use the term "volume" was Reed Magazine 66.
- *After that, the magazine was labeled as "A literary Mosaic since 1867" for a couple years.