The Carolina Quarterly publishes a variety of poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and artwork three times a year. Approximately 1,000 copies are distributed to readers locally and to individual subscribers, public and university libraries, and bookstores in the United States and overseas. Back issues are sold throughout the year. Free online access to the full-text of our issues is available to every UNC student.
The Carolina Quarterly has been publishing the work of established and emergent writers for more than sixty years. Recent issues have featured James Gordon Bennett, Megan Mayhew Bergman, William Virgil Davis, Aaron Gwyn, K.A. Hays, Matt Hart, Cary Holladay, Caitlin Horrocks, Mark Jarman, William Logan, Peter Munro, Valerie Sayers, Joan I. Seigel, George Singleton, Matthew Volmer, G.C. Waldrep, Theordore Worozbyt, Robert Wrigley, and more. Works published in The Carolina Quarterly have appeared in New Stories from the South, Best of the South, Poetry Daily, O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prizes, and Best American Short Stories.
Masthead
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Fiction Editors Phil Sandick |
Assistant Editors Bhumi Dalia |
Poetry Editor Lee Norton |
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Non-Fiction Editor Nick Anderman |
Cover Design Philip McFee |
Web Editor Adam Engel |
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Matthew Hotham | Editor-In-Chief |
| INTERNS: Shannon Beamon, Kirsten Chang, Madison Cumbee, Scott Davis, Alex Dixon, Hannah Dockery, Mandy Eidson, Megan Harley, Jordan Hopson, Kristen Johnson, Alice Martin, Ben Miller, Peyton Riley, Liana Roux, Nathan Vail, and William Wright. |
| FICTION READERS: Laura Bennett, Kelsey Foster, Alice Martin, Livia Nelson, Madeline Raskulinecz, Jerrod Rosenbaum, Ben Thompson, Zachary Vernon, L. Lamar Wilson, and Nate Young. |
| POETRY READERS: Jasmine V. Bailey, Melissa Birkhofer, Katy Bowler, Taylor Burklew, Melissa Golding, and Rachel Kiel. |
| NON-FICTION READERS: Emily Banks, Kirsten Chang, Mandy Eidson, and Jonathan Pattishall. |
History
The Carolina Quarterly has a long history. In 1844, the North Carolina University Magazine, published by members of the senior class, struggled through ten numbers and one year before expiring. In February 1852, Volume 1, Number 1 of a magazine bearing the same name appeared quietly at Chapel Hill, acknowledging its predecessor and praying for better luck.
By 1861, the new North Carolina Magazine was flourishing, publishing local writers, students’ work, remembrances, and reflections, but the magazine and later the University were closed by the Civil War. In March 1878, the magazine reappeared under the same name, beginning again with Volume 1, Number 1, in which series it ran until 1920. In October of that year, it became the New Carolina Magazine and once again appeared as Volume 1, Number 1.
During the Depression, it metamorphosed from magazine format into a quasi-tabloid affair, emerging in 1929 under the same name and as Volume 1, Number 1. In 1934, recovering slowly from the Hoover days, the chameleon journal reverted to its previous magazine format and began claiming on its masthead, “The Oldest College Publication in the U.S. Founded in 1844.”
In 1948, the Carolina Magazine became The Carolina Quarterly – published three times per year in accordance with the three quarters in the University’s school year. Over the years, it has published the works of many up-and-coming authors who soon establish themselves as significant voices in the American literary landscape, including A. R. Ammons, T. C. Boyle, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo, Annie Dillard, Louise Erdrich, Ha Jin, Denis Johnson, Denise Levertov, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lee Smith, among others. It has also published interviews with such award-winning authors as Russell Banks, Pam Durban, Richard Ford, Amy Hempel, Calvin Trillin, Tobias Wolff, Larry Brown, and John Edgar Wideman, among others.
Both Esquire and Writers’ Digest have cited The Carolina Quarterly alongside such magazines as The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly as a place to find consistently good writing. New Pages reviewer Mark Cunningham has said of the Quarterly: “This is a journal whose value far exceeds the subscription cost.” Clockwatch Review named it the best literary magazine in North Carolina. Stories first published in The Carolina Quarterly have been honored with appearances in such anthologies as Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prizes: Best of the Small Presses, and New Stories from the South. Poems from recent issues of The Carolina Quarterly have been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. We believe this reputation for excellence reflects well on the university – and the state of North Carolina – as a whole. In a 1997 interview, award-winning North Carolina poet and novelist Robert Morgan called The Carolina Quarterly “one of the glories of UNC-Chapel Hill, and the state of North Carolina.”
Today The Carolina Quarterly remains a proudly student-run journal, with a robust staff of both graduate and undergraduate editors, interns, and assistants. We continue to publish three print issues per year.