The Southern Review, the literary magazine housed on the University’s campus, has been hit by budget cuts and has an uncertain future.
 
As an auxiliary service, the magazine finds itself with other auxiliaries at the front of the line for cuts.
 
Jeanne Leiby, the editor of The Southern Review, said the journal took a 20-percent budget cut last year and another 20-percent cut this year.
 
She said she’s unsure of how the predicted cuts will affect the University.
 
But for the last projection released, an exercise in cutting 23 percent of funds from the University’s budget, the journal’s operating budget was predicted to get a $37,000 slash. The latest projection calls for a more drastic 35-percent cut.
 
“If there really is a 35-percent cut like they’re saying there will be, we might as well put up a sign on the University that says ‘closed for business,'” Leiby said.
 
The Southern Review offices are housed in the Old President’s House, which will be partially demolished when construction begins on the new parking garage and bookstore.
 
Business Manager Leslie Green said the journal staff will no longer have offices there, but staff members haven’t been notified of where they’re moving.
 
“It’s possible they could cut us, but I hope not,” Green said.
 
Green said the journal’s annual budget is now roughly $214,000 and only pays for staff members’ salaries.
 
Green said the journal is printed using self-generated funds from sales and ad revenue. She said she doesn’t know what else the journal can do to cope with budget cuts.
 
“We were really frugal last year, so I don’t know what we’ll do this year,” Green said.
 
Green said she’s sure the journal will be forced to lose staff members soon.
 
Leiby said the staff at the journal is forced to think of creative solutions to the problems caused by budget cuts. She said it has begun advertising using free electronic sources like Wikipedia and Facebook.
 
Leiby said the journal has a circulation of 2,500, which is high for a literary journal.
 
Leiby said the journal has had to reduce payment to authors for work submitted because of the lack of funds.
 
“Writers have no illusions that they’ll make it rich in this, but they do deserve to get paid,” Green said.
 
Green said the journal has had to put a cap on how much money authors can receive. The amount for poetry has been capped at $125, and prose is capped at $200.
 
“It’s good for us, not good for writers,” she said.
 
Green said the journal has also been made smaller to lessen printing costs, and the staff has stopped traveling to conferences.
 
The journal recently appointed a new Resident Scholar, Frank Giampietro, who said he has quickly learned to love The Southern Review since he began working there in August.
 
Giampietro said losing the journal could drastically impact the University’s standing among other schools.
 
“We have this thing that distinguishes us from others,” Giampietro said. “Without it, we’re just another state school.”
 
 
 
 
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Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]