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The Eudora Welty Newsletter
is the only scholarly publication devoted
exclusively to the Pulitzer Prize-winning
writer Eudora Welty. It was created in 1977
by William U. McDonald Jr. of the University
of Toledo as “a relatively informal medium
of communication among Welty scholars and
collectors.” McDonald, who participated
in numerous bibliographical and critical
studies of Welty’s work and amassed a substantial
Welty collection that he has since given
to the Canaday Center at the University
of Toledo, is considered by Welty scholars—as
Noel Polk stated in “W. U. McDonald, Jr.,
Appreciated” (Eudora Welty Newsletter
21.1)—as not just a pioneer in Welty studies,
but the inspiration and a sustaining presence
as the field has developed over the past
three and a half decades.”
When McDonald began the Eudora Welty
Newsletter, it offered bibliographic
information (on works by Welty and works
about Welty) and served as a record of Welty’s
public activities. “EWN is not intended,”
stated McDonald, “as an outlet for explications,
critical analyses, [or] more broadly scholarly
studies.” Throughout the years, the newsletter
evolved to include reviews of Welty’s work;
Welty’s blurbs written for book jackets;
information about awards Welty received,
adaptations of her stories, and foreign
editions of her work; and collations and
discussions of the textual variants in different
versions of Welty’s stories. McDonald retired
as editor of the Eudora Welty Newsletter
after 20 years and 40 issues—“a very rewarding
experience,” he says—and the newsletter
was still going strong. So, beginning with
volume 21 in 1997, the newsletter changed
hands: Pearl McHaney of Georgia State University,
who had compiled the annual checklist of
Welty scholarship since 1986, assumed editorship
of the EWN.
With the editorial change also came changes
in the content of the newsletter. Pieces
about Welty’s appearances, awards, editions,
and translations were still included, and,
of course, the annual checklist of works
by Welty and the “annual bibliography of
criticism and scholarship on her work” initiated
by McDonald have continued into the present.
The newsletter grew to include longer critical
analyses of her work. In 2000, Welty’s garden,
planned and planted by her mother, and the
author’s references to gardens and plants
in her fiction gained interest, and since
the Summer 2001 issue, “Roses in Welty’s
Garden” has been a recurring piece that
details individual rose types that Welty
has mentioned in stories and novels. In
the Summer 2004 issue, Welty’s uncollected
story “Magic” (Manuscript 1935) will be
republished with a note on its history.
In addition to content changes
have been changes in layout and design.
The EWN began using a decorative
title and borders around the pages and changed
to a two-column layout in printed magazine
format. The EWN also began printing
photographs and illustrations, and since
1999, the newsletter has benefited from
Howard and Pat McHenry’s generosity in support
of the production costs of color printing
and permission fees. The EWN has
also published two special supplements,
a memorial section shortly after Welty’s
death (Summer 2001) and an index to Welty’s
autobiography One Writer’s Beginnings
(Winter 2003). An index to The Eye of
the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews
is planned for Summer 2004, and the Winter
2005 issue will include an index to Michael
Kreyling’s Author and Agent, neither
of which were indexed when published.
The Eudora Welty Newsletter
has around 300 subscribers at present, including
scholars and libraries from Italy, France,
England, Spain, Norway, Japan, Brazil, Denmark,
Israel, Greece, and much of the United States
and Canada. The editorial advisory board
of the EWN, established in 1997,
includes distinguished writer Reynolds Price
and the family-authorized Welty biographer
Suzanne Marrs, as well as leading scholars
in the field. In addition to publishing
the newsletter, the EWN editors have
other responsibilities: they participate
in meetings with the executive committees
of the Eudora Welty Society, which presents
papers at international, national, and regional
conferences, and the Society for the Study
of Southern Literature. The Center for the
Study of Southern Culture at the University
of Mississippi, the Center for the Study
of the American South at the University
of North Carolina, the Eudora Welty Foundation,
as well as weekly student and lay inquirers,
confer with the EWN editors regarding
Welty studies. As commentators on Welty
and her works, the EWN editors also
have been featured in the media, including
an interview on National Public Radio, interviews
in the national press following Welty’s
death, and an interview by John Siegenthaler
for a Welty-focused episode of the PBS show
A Word on Words. The Eudora Welty
Newsletter has also served as an affiliate
with the fiction readings at the Margaret
Mitchell House, worked with the Georgia
Center for the Book on activities that promote
reading and literacy in Georgia, and conferred
with the Georgia Committee of the National
Museum of Women in the Arts. Recently, the
editors of the Eudora Welty Newsletter
were instrumental in bringing an archive
of Welty first editions and valuable secondary
materials given by John Bayne, a collector
of Southern literary works, to Georgia State’s
rare books collection. The Bayne Collection,
valued at over $27,000, was showcased in
April 2004 with a reception and illustrated
catalogue to inaugurate its exhibition in
Special Collections.
Aside from community activities, the EWN
also maintains a presence on the Internet
with its Web site, www.gsu.edu/~wwwewn.
This site offers a selected bibliography
of Welty’s works; a brief biography, “Remembering
Eudora Welty (1909-2001)” by Renée
Love; a sample article from a recent print
issue of the newsletter; a complete list
of all Table of Contents listings; an awards
list for Welty; links to other Welty Web
sites; information about upcoming Welty-related
events; Welty-related calls for papers;
and a frequently-asked-questions section.
Several years ago the editors entered the
EWN in CELJ’s Phoenix Award competition
for significantly improved or resurrected
journals. The newsletterreceived very favorable
comments but, since it is a “newsletter,”
was not eligible to compete for the award.
It was suggested that the editors entertain
the idea of making the publication more
of a journal by soliciting or accepting
longer critical articles as well as its
standard short essays, news, notes, and
biographical and textual pieces. In the
past several years, the editors have made
great progress toward achieving this goal
and may again change the format of the EWN.
Currently, subscription rates are $10 domestic
and $14 international for two issues per
year (Winter and Summer), and individual
issues and back issues are $7 per issue.
The EWN welcomes submissions
from Welty scholars and collectors. Submissions
should be typed and double-spaced, with
one-inch margins, and should follow the
current MLA style guide with internal citations
and a list of works cited. Endnotes should
be reserved for explanatory comments and
supplementary information. Where applicable,
quotations should be made to the Library
of America volumes of Welty’s works as the
standard in the field. (The Library of America
uses Welty’s first editions of all her story
collections, novels, and memoir, and includes
“Where Is the Voice Coming From?” and “The
Demonstrators” from Collected Stories, plus
selected essays.) Submissions may be submitted
by e-mail to Pearl McHaney (pmchaney@gsu.edu)
as Microsoft Word attachments or mailed
to the attention of the editor at Eudora
Welty Newsletter, English Department, Georgia
State University, P.O. Box 3970, Atlanta,
GA, 30302-3970. Suggestions for illustrative
materials should be sent by e-mail as .tif
files.
CINDY SHEFFIELD MICHAELS
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