By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
Terry R. Hummer, a widely published poet, fiction writer and literary critic who has been editor of two major literary magazines, will be the next editor of The Georgia Review, the University of Georgia’s prize-winning literary journal.
Hummer, currently a professor and Senior Poet at Virginia Commonwealth University, will become the Review’s permanent editor July 1, pending approval by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. He will also hold a faculty appointment as professor of English.
He succeeds Stanley W. Lindberg, who was editor for 25 years before his death in January 2000. Stephen Corey, associate editor, has served as acting editor the past year.
Hummer, who writes under the name T.R. Hummer, has been editor of the New England Review and the Kenyon Review, and was poetry editor of Cimarron Review. He has published more than 130 poems and is author of six books of poetry. His seventh, Useless Virtues, will be published this fall by Louisiana State University Press.
He has also written short stories and dozens of essays, reviews and book chapters. His work has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker and Harpers and in leading literary journals, including The Georgia Review.
The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Hummer has twice won the prestigious Pushcart Prize for his poetry. He has more than 20 years’ experience teaching literature and creative writing, and was director of the creative writing program at the University of Oregon.
The Georgia Review, started in 1947, grew into one of the nation’s most respected literary journals under Lindberg’s leadership. With an eclectic mix of fiction, poetry, essays, reviews, art and graphics, the Review features the work of leading contemporary authors and has published stories and articles by some of the best-known names in modern American literature, including Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Robert Penn Warren.
The Review is also a popular showcase for promising new writers, receiving more than 15,000 submissions annually. Works by more than 100 previously unpublished authors appeared in the Review while Lindberg was editor.
The Review’s numerous honors include the 1986 National Magazine Award, for which it has also been a finalist in subsequent years.
Karen Holbrook, UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, says Hummer brings a valuable combination of creative, administrative and academic experience to the Review.
“Terry is a gifted writer and a bright and discerning editor who is known for his ability to draw out the very best in other authors,” Holbrook says. “He is also a respected scholar and teacher, and a master of the mechanics and managerial skills necessary to produce a high-quality publication. With his experience, talent and temperament, he will significantly advance the legacy of excellence that Stan Lindberg built for The Georgia Review.”
Hummer said he considers the Review “far and away the best of its kind” and a publication that, under Lindberg, became “nothing less than a national treasure.
“Stan understood that it is not enough for a journal of this sort to be simply good or even excellent--it must be indispensable,” Hummer says. “He, together with the outstanding staff he assembled, made certain that the Review fell within that category. That is a tradition that it is my responsibility to continue.”
Hummer was editor-in-chief of the Kenyon Review while on the faculty of Kenyon College from 1984 to 1989, and he continues as a contributing editor. As a faculty member of Middlebury College in 1989-1993, he was editor of the New England Review and director of creative writing, and he served as guest editor of Bread Loaf Quarterly. He also taught four years at Oklahoma State University.
He has also been associate editor and editor-in-chief of Quarterly West and is contributing editor to Manoa: A Literary Journal of the Pacific Rim. He was poetry editor of Cimarron Review in 1980-1984.
Hummer’s poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. He has edited several anthologies, contributed to a number of critical volumes and has been poet-in-residence or writer-in-residence at several schools.
Hummer holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and creative writing from Southern Mississippi University and a doctorate in American literature and creative writing from the University of Utah. |
|
