{"id":962,"date":"1985-04-18T16:12:37","date_gmt":"1985-04-19T00:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2016-09-19T16:13:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T23:13:10","slug":"better-lit-than-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=962","title":{"rendered":"Better ‘Lit’ Than Never"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nassau Weekly (4\/18\/85)<\/p>\n

BETTER \u2018LIT\u2019 THAN NEVER<\/p>\n

By E. Randol Schoenberg (Randy) (\u201988), Staff Writer<\/p>\n

The Winter issue of the Nassau Literary Review<\/em>, after many long delays, is expected to come out some time next week, editors say. With that said, the obvious question arises, \u201cWhy has it taken so long?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the latest we\u2019ve ever been,\u201d admits Charles Robbins, Editor-in-Chief for the Winter Issue. \u201cIt\u2019s the fault of the Dean of Students office for cutting our money, but maybe it\u2019s our fault, too,\u201d Until this year, the Lit<\/em> received $11,000 from the Dean of Students office, but new Assistant Dean Muriel Whitcomb was told to reduce her office\u2019s budget, and the Lit<\/em> could get only $10,000 this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir funding was disproportionate to what [other student groups] get,\u201d Whitcomb says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to be even-handed.\u201d Drum<\/em>, the other literary magazine funded by the Dean of Students office, receives a tenth of what the Lit<\/em> gets. Whitcomb foresees further cuts for the Lit<\/em> in the future. \u201cThere\u2019s real inequity, and we\u2019re gradually going to rectify that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Although she regrets the cuts, Robbins does understand why they were implemented. \u201cMoney was short all around, and there was a cutback.\u201d The Lit was a natural choice because of its large budget. Robbins feels, however, that the money was deserved. \u201cWe get more money than any organization campus. It\u2019s nice, but I think it is somewhat appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reduction caught the staff unaware, and they were forced to cut back on some of the amenities they had enjoyed in the past. Instead of sending the prose, poetry and graphics to the printer and having it laid out there, they had to produce camera-ready copy themselves. Most of the delay was due to the difficulty of getting people to type. Robbins, who had to do much of the typing himself, recalls, \u201cIt was a nightmare; we\u2019re not experts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Culhane, former business editor under Robbins and the new Editor-in-Chief for the upcoming spring issues, describes the difficulties the staff faced. \u201cIt was a learning process\u2014doing typesetting and production on our own.\u201d Culhane was responsible for bringing in more money to make up for the $1,000 loss. \u201cWe made up the loss with advertising without much trouble,\u201d says Culhane, but he is unsure of the future which Dean Whitcomb has suggested will entail more cuts. \u201cThis year we were able to handle the budge cuts by doing more of it ourselves. Next year, I don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to do it.\u00a0\u00a0 By upgrading the business staff we doubled the money we took in, but we\u2019re limited by how much the staff can do because we only come out twice a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting ads in a literary magazine really fouls it up,\u201d Robbins says. \u201cWe were forced to be a business. The Lit<\/em> is not a money making venture. It can\u2019t be here or anywhere.\u201d With the Lit<\/em> facing further cutbacks, Robbins fears that much of the innovation he has added to the magazine in his two issues will be lost. \u201cWe tried to be a little imaginative in our layout, and a lot of it just costs money. It will go back to being what it was, boring and bland.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nassau Literary Review<\/em> is the oldest continuously published college literary magazine in America. At its high point, it reached 300 pages in length, and can claim Booth Tarkington, Woodrow Wilson, John Peale Bishop, and F. Scott Fitzgerald as past contributers (sic). The present issue is 80 pages long, an increase from last years 64 pages.<\/p>\n

The Lit<\/em> has faced increasing competition from other campus literary magazines sponsored by the residential colleges. According to Robbins, many people have been turned off by the fact that the Lit<\/em> only accepts eight stories from over fifty submissions. But Culhane doubts that the colleges pose a threat. \u201cI don\u2019t think that [the college magazines have] much of an effect. They are much more localized. We reach a much larger audience, and get different kinds of submissions. We get more from the Creative Writing, Visual Arts, and Architecture Programs than they do.\u201d Still, the existence of college literary magazines has threatened the Lit<\/em>\u2019s position as Princeton\u2019s main literary publication. As Robbins says, \u201cIt\u2019s too bad the residential colleges have taken people away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbins sees advancements such as a three color cover and this year\u2019s silver border as important in his efforts to rebuild the review. \u201cWithout all the trim it could be stapled; it could be a term paper.\u201d Although the Lit<\/em> is coming out very late, Robbins is proud his work. \u201cIf people will only read us, they\u2019ll see that it\u2019s not the rag it used to be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Because of the budget difficulties, the Lit<\/em>\u2019s future is uncertain. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame Princeton University can\u2019t support this as it should be,\u201d Robbins laments. \u201cIf they can\u2019t afford it at Princeton, then where can we do it?\u201d Culhane reports that he has already finished production of the spring issue, which should be delivered toward the end of the reading period. The spring Lit<\/em> features interviews with novelist John Irving and poet Galway Kinnell. And next year? Culhane says, \u201cThe winter issue will be out in December.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nassau Weekly (4\/18\/85) BETTER \u2018LIT\u2019 THAN NEVER By E. Randol Schoenberg (Randy) (\u201988), Staff Writer The Winter issue of the Nassau Literary Review, after many long delays, is expected to come out some time next week, editors say. With that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}