New Orleans Review Collection

The New Orleans Review (NOR) began in 1967-1968 when Loyola faculty member Miller Williams studied the feasibility of the university publishing a journal of literature and culture. Such a venture, Williams concluded, would enhance Loyola's intellectual life. Loyola President Homer Jolley, S.J., approved the project, and in the fall of 1968 the first issue of the NOR appeared. The journal's first three issues were published by Loyola for the New Orleans Consortium -- which consisted of St. Mary's Dominican College, Xavier University, and Loyola. Thereafter, Loyola put out the NOR on its own. Although intended originally as a quarterly, the journal soon settled into a publication schedule of three times each year. Founders of the NOR aimed to create a literary and cultural journal that would appeal to a broadly literate readership, rather than only to a specialist or academic audience. It would draw from diverse intellectual disciplines and arts. It would feature fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, photography, book reviews. It would enlist contributions from the accomplished as well as from the beginning writer or artist. It would provide a forum for Loyola faculty and students. And it would demonstrate the university's commitment to intellectual and artistic endeavor.  The NOR's staff has fashioned and implemented these goals. An editor, a managing editor, and several associate editors have directed the journal's development. In addition, an editorial board and a group of advisory editors have provided guidance and advice for the editor and staff. After nearly two decades of publication, the NOR has accomplished many of its original goals. It has attracted distinguished advisory editors such as Hodding Carter, John Ciardi, James Dickey, Joseph Fichter, S.J., and Walker Percy. It has carried contributions by or interviews with Nelson Algren, Rosemary Daniell, George Dureau, Ernest J. Gaines, Ellen Gilchrist, Robert L. Heilbroner, Granville Hicks, David Madden, Joyce Carol Oates, Walker Percy, John Kennedy Toole, and many others. It has also opened its pages to the young and the previously unpublished. And it has continued to demonstrate Loyola's commitment to cultural excellence.

Note written by Carpenter, Arthur