July 29, 2003

Boise State's 'Idaho Review' Receives Top National Recognition

The Idaho Review, an annual collection of fiction and poetry published by Boise State University’s creative writing program, has had two of its short stories selected for reprint in the 2003 edition of Prize Stories: The O.Henry Awards, available from Anchor Books in the fall.     “This is one of the highest honors in literary publishing,” said Mitch Wieland, founding editor of the journal and a professor at Boise State. “The editors at Prize Stories screen several thousand short stories each year and publish only the top 20. The Idaho Review was competing against all the big commercial magazines — The New Yorker, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly — as well as the hundreds of excellent literary journals in the country. Needless to say, we’re absolutely thrilled.”     “Kissing,” one of the stories chosen for Prize Stories, is by veteran Montana writer William Kittredge, a beloved figure in writing on the American West. The other story, “Bleed Blue in Indonesia,” is by newcomer Adam Desnoyers and was his first published story.     “Part of our mission is to publish emerging writers alongside the nation’s best. It’s extra special for Adam’s first published story to earn the prestigious O.Henry Award,” Wieland said.     This is not the first time The Idaho Review has been singled out for national recognition. A story from The Idaho Review was reprinted in The 2002 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, another of the major national prize anthologies. The journal has also had three stories listed in the top 100 stories in The Best American Short Stories 1999, and three stories have earned “Special Mention” in the 2001 and 2003 editions of The Pushcart Prize. Most of the stories and poems from the first four issues have gone on to appear in novels and collections by major New York publishers.     The current 2003 issue of The Idaho Review offers exciting new work from some of our country’s most acclaimed writers, including brand new fiction from award-winning writers Rick Bass, author of Where the Sea Used to Be, and Frederick Busch, author of A Memory of War, published in February by W.W. Norton. Other writers in the issue include Melanie Rae Thon, Edith Pearlman, Donald Hall and former Idaho Writer-in-Residence Robert Wrigley.      The Idaho Review is available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, the Boise State Bookstore, or by calling 1-800-992-8398, Ext. 1362. For more information, contact editor Mitch Wieland at (208) 426-1002.      -30- Contact Mitch Wieland The Idaho Review editor 208 426-1362 Media Contact Kathleen Craven communications and marketing 208 426-3275

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