History

The longest running literary journal in Minnesota, Great River Review was founded in 1975 by Emilio DeGrazia at Mankato State. Beginning in 2016, Great River Review traveled upriver to its new home in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota, where it published its first issue in 2017. 

“Making sure the journal stays in Minnesota was important in our decision to offer it to the university,” said editors Robert Hedin and Michael Waters. “We’re so very pleased that the magazine will find new life under the stewardship of its new editor, poet Peter Campion.”

Published biannually by the Anderson Center since 1996, it has been dedicated to the publication of the best in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation. Works published in Great River Review have been reprinted in Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, Best American Travel Essays, Best American Sports Stories, and the journal itself was the recipient of the 2002 Minnesota State Book Award for its twenty-fifth anniversary issue. Great River Review has published some of the finest writers in the country and abroad, including Ted Kooser, Robert Bly, Philip Levine, and Linda Pastan.

In its new home at the University of Minnesota, Great River Review provides editorial experience for graduate students in English and Creative Writing. Great River Review endeavors to bring the unique literary life of the Twin Cities to the rest of the world, even while bringing the rest of the world to the Twin Cities.