Creating a community of literary journal enthusiasts

The Red Cedar Review seems to have a penchant for basements. Most week nights during the semesters you can find our editors and readers in the basement of Morrill Hall, home to the college of Arts & Letters. This is where we make our decisions, reading submissions and discussing ways to keep our readership alive. The space the English Department of Michigan State University allows us as well as the support they give us for our publication process makes Red Cedar Review possible, and we are very thankful for that. Founded in 1963 our journal is the oldest undergraduate-run publication in the United States, a legacy for which the entire MSU and literary community can be proud.

Our journal is published by the MSU Press which is likewise situated in a basement. Found in the basement of the Manly Miles Building, the press is a university affiliated non-profit organization. It is here that our managing and assistant editor run the journal’s production and see it through the publication and printing process.

True to our roots as a small undergraduate-run publication, Red Cedar Review is committed to publishing new, up-and-coming authors, as well as established writers. We believe that giving a voice to new writers is an important way to enrich literature in a world whose publications have become increasingly homogenous. The best thing about small literary journals is that they differ from place to place, from college town to college town. It’s true that you can go into any Barnes & Noble in the country and find the same books on the same shelves, the same displays near the same café. Needless to say, we find this last bit of diversity among literary journals refreshing.

RCR is also committed to publicizing new journals, and couldn’t be more proud of the Oleander Review at UofM, which worked with our past assistant editor, Lindsay Tigue, to found the first publication of its kind on the Ann Arbor campus. We congratulate them on their first successful year and look forward to many more.

Here at Red Cedar we recognize the importance of supporting small presses, independent publishers, and literary journals of all stripes—we encourage you to do the same. In a world that is reading less and less, the Red Cedar is consistently committed to putting out a quality journal filled with well-crafted stories, essays, poems, and photography. It is important to the survival of new journals to have a literary community which fosters growth in readership, sponsors local readings, and creates a safe space to share creative ideas and tricks of the trade.

If you work for a literary journal, and are interested in having a blurb about your journal and a link to your website on our page, please contact us at redcedarreview [at] gmail [dot] com.