GAMBIER – A $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to the renowned literary journal, “The Kenyon Review,” will go toward paying authors and editors, the publication’s managing editor told the Mount Vernon News.
“We’re so grateful of the NEA for being so supportive of our work,” Abigail Wadsworth Serfass, managing editor, said. “It really makes a huge difference to be able to put something out to the world.”
The money will also be used for the printing and production of the magazine, she added. In addition to the print magazine, “The Kenyon Review” has a web-only publication called “KR Online.”
“The grant will also cover some of our web hosting costs,” she said.
Submissions to “The Kenyon Review” increased 20% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That means there is a lot more to read,” Serfass said.
At the same time, there were fewer subscribers to “The Kenyon Review” during the pandemic.
“We weren’t able to run the summer reading workshops that we usually hold on campus because of the pandemic,” Serfass said. “All of those participants receive a year-long subscription to the review. When we weren’t able to run those programs, we were no longer able to get those subscriptions. That cut into our subscriber base.”
Literary magazines are particularly valuable because they provide a venue for writers to publish shorter works, Serfass explained.
“We’re always looking out for someone new who is writing something amazing that we want to put out into the world,” Serfass said.
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