About

Masthead#

Editor
Beth Staples

Nonfiction Editor
DW McKinney

Fiction Editor
Frederica Morgan Davis

Poetry Editor
Lesley Wheeler

Comics Editor
Chris Gavaler

Translations Editor
Seth Michelson

Art Editor
Sarah Audsley

Special Features Editor
Nadeen Kharputly

Associate Editors
Marissa Castrigno, Siew David Hii, Chase Isbell, Will Shaw

Managing Editor
Charity Corman

Blog and Social Media Managers
Kate Keeley, Alyssa Sanchez-Sine

Interns
Kaia Beddows, Kira Binder, Betty Boatwright, Sophia Breschi, Margot Carr, Hana Chang, Hailey Copland, Sloan Criner, Trey Custodio, Claire DiChiaro, Matthew Ezzell, Audrey Foss, Joe Gilmor, Julia Haetzel, Caitlyn Hill, Nora Jacobson, Aby Joyner, Simone Kasischke, Aiden Kelsey, Renna McNair, Ellis Nicholson, Saaraim Nunez, Kaitlin Silva, Turi Trainor

Web Design
The New Dynamic

Logo Designer
Julian Montague, Montague Projects

Masthead Portraits
Jenny Lesser Holman

Mission#

The editors believe that reading through the perspective of another person, persona, or character is one of the ways we practice empathy, expand our understanding of the world, and experience new levels of awareness. Shenandoah aims to showcase a wide variety of voices and perspectives in terms of gender identity, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, nationality, regionality, sexuality, and educational background. We’re excited to consider short stories, essays, excerpts of novels in progress, poems, comics, and translations of all the above. For more information, see our submission guidelines.

History#

Shenandoah was founded in 1950 at Washington & Lee University by a group of ambitious young student-editors including Tom Wolfe and Thomas Carter. For a brief time, it was primarily an undergraduate magazine, but under the leadership of student editor Tom Carter, Shenandoah became a quarterly, publishing a cast of international writers including e e cummings, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, James Merrill, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, and Flannery O’Connor. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Washington and Lee faculty member James Boatwright expanded the journal and published occasional theme issues, including a thirty-fifth anniversary anthology. After Boatwright’s death in 1988, Dabney Stuart took over as part-time editor. In 1995, R. T. Smith was selected as the magazine’s first full-time editor and, in 2011, he shepherded the magazine to its fully online version; Shenandoah is now a web magazine that publishes semiannually. In August 2018, after the retirement of R. T. Smith, Beth Staples took over as editor. Shenandoah is now part of W&L’s English Department and, under Beth’s direction, is supported by a class of undergraduate interns studying editing and publishing. Former student workers include Mark Richard, Christian Wiman, Matthew Neill Null, and Rebecca Makkai.

The Internship#

“The Shenandoah internship teaches critical thinking by asking students to engage with their biases while maintaining consciously open minds.”

As of 2018, Shenandoah is part of Washington and Lee University’s English Department and, under the direction of professor Beth Staples, is supported by a class of interns studying editing and publishing. The internship is a unique opportunity for undergraduates to get valuable hands-on experience reading manuscript submissions in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and comics; copyediting and fact checking accepted work; organizing promotional campaigns; planning events; managing the website; and assisting with many other facets of publishing the biannual magazine.

“When I think back to the my time at W&L, Shenandoah was my escape into a new world.”

The internship is offered every fall and winter term, is limited to twelve students, fulfills experiential learning credits, counts toward both the English and the Creative Writing majors and minors, and is repeatable for a maximum of six credits. If you have questions or want to request instructor consent to enroll, email Beth at bstaples@wlu.edu.

Land Acknowledgement#

The land we are on was, but a small portion of land inhabited by people who called themselves Yesa (Yee-sa which means the people). These Eastern Siouan Speaking people inhabited the land in the interior portion of Virginia from the New River to the Fall Lines at Richmond for well over a thousand years before the arrival of the Europeans. Through years of warfare, disease, forced migration, and broken treaties the original people were reduced to a fraction of their original numbers living on a small portion of their original land. They were forced into assimilation by the dominant culture. The descendants of these original inhabitants are still here today. We know them as the Monacan and they understand the land is the people and the people is the land and are not strangers on any of the land that was once considered their territory. As we are able to have air to breathe and water to drink remember the original people have been stewards of the land for centuries and have made it possible for us to enjoy many of the natural resources we still have today. We honor the Monacan and their ancestors.

—Written by Victoria P. Ferguson of Monacan Indian Nation