A new chapter for award-winning Idaho Review

Professor Mitch Wieland stepped down as editor of The Idaho Review, the literary journal published by the Creative Writing MFA program at Boise State University and which Wieland founded twenty-six years ago. Mary Pauline Lowry, an alum of the Creative Writing MFA program at Boise State and a lecturer in fiction for the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing, will serve as guest editor for the 2022-2023 academic year.

For Wieland, literary journals have long been a passion. As an MFA fiction student at the University of Alabama, Wieland worked on The Black Warrior Review, which ignited his love for editing and publishing and became a model for The Idaho Review. “Literary journals are, of course, a true labor of love,” Wieland wrote in an Editor’s Note for Issue 14 of The Idaho Review. “Ours is no different.” 

Anthony Doerr, the author of the best-selling novels “Cloud Cuckoo Land” and “All the Light We Cannot See,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, says of Wieland: “In an era when print journals were folding left and right, Mitch assembled, sustained, and elevated The Idaho Review from sheer force of will. [...]” Wieland published a short story by Doerr in Issue 4 of the journal. During his tenure, Wieland published work by many acclaimed authors, including Joy Williams, Percival Everett, Edith Perlman, Ann Beattie, Stuart Dybek, Jennifer Haigh, Kali Fajardo-Anstine and Brandon Shimoda, among others.

Following the model of The Black Warrior Review, Wieland designed The Idaho Review as a student-led publication. He created and taught an undergraduate and graduate creative writing course, Literary Journal Editing and Publishing, which gave students the chance to serve as the editorial staff for The Idaho Review. Students read submissions, solicit writers, and vote on which stories to send to the editors. Of this legacy, Doerr commented, “Mitch exposed countless MFA students to the rigors and joys of editing, and gave them the invaluable experience of [...] introducing them to working writers. Getting to work with Mitch on my own fiction was a great honor.” For Wieland, passing down his passion for literary journals to generations of students provided much reward. In his Editor’s Note, Wieland wrote, “The dedication and passion of these students never fails to give me hope for our literary future.”

A rich legacy

As editor, Wieland published both established masters and new voices, giving many up-and-coming writers their first major literary publication. Over the twenty issues that Wieland edited, sixteen stories received awards and earned reprint in prestigious national prize anthologies, including “The Best American Short Stories,” “The O. Henry Prize Stories,” “The Pushcart Prize,” “The Best Small Fictions,” “New Stories from the South,” and “Best of the West.” The novelist Elizabeth Gonzalez James, whose story “Children of a Careless God” appeared in Issue 18, reflected on her experience placing a story with The Idaho Review: “I wrote a bizarre little story about some cats trapped in an apartment and I knew it had to find the right editor at exactly the right magazine. I was so happy when it found a home with Mitch and The Idaho Review. Championing new and original voices is something that a lot of editors say they want to do, but it's another thing entirely to take a chance and actually do it.”

Rick Bass, an award-winning writer who had many stories appear in The Idaho Review, wrote of Wieland, “Mitch Wieland gives us his all. He gives his all and in the peculiar alchemy of the greats is not reduced by this arduous and enormous giving, but instead grows from it.” Bass worked with Wieland on editing stories, and wrote of Wieland’s particular gifts: “He peers down at each story—a million stories—watching to see what happens next: where to chisel, where to shave, where to trim and where to add and build up; thinking and feeling these things, these thoughts, with the purest of intent. And—this is one of the secrets about a lifetime of art—he becomes the thing he has been serving. The jeweler becomes the jewel.”

Wieland found great satisfaction working with over 300 authors during his time as editor. “After all this time, I have never gotten over the incredible rush of finding something magical among the thousands of submissions we receive,” Wieland wrote. “When I started the journal, I was asked if we really needed a new literary journal. I said I thought it couldn’t hurt. Now more than ever, I believe we need the wisdom, insight, and solace writers can offer us. I salute all the editors who make literary journals a vibrant part of our daily lives.”

A new chapter

Mary Pauline Lowry, a novelist who serves as guest editor for The Idaho Review for the 2022-2023 academic year, had the unique experience of studying with Wieland while she earned her MFA in fiction at Boise State University. Lowry said, “Part of the reason I applied to the BSU MFA was that I wanted a chance to work on The Idaho Review. I wanted to peek behind the curtain of a well-respected literary journal. I loved reading the submissions pile in search of a gem worth fighting for. And my favorite part of the process was the round tables Mitch hosted, allowing for us to have a lively debate about the stories we loved. As someone who has been obsessed with literature all my life, joining a space where other people cared as much as I did about stories was like coming home.”

As guest editor, Lowry plans to continue to run the journal in the spirit in which Wieland founded it, as a place for both established writers and new voices, and as a pillar of the literary publishing community. Lowry said, “Mitch’s dedication to the literary community is an inspiration. I’m incredibly grateful for all he taught me—about the history and role of literary journals, about editing, about advocating for work I love. And I am beyond honored that Mitch gave me the opportunity to help take The Idaho Review into its next phase. The only reason I’m not too intimidated to accept the challenge is because Mitch will still be providing me with his expert guidance and sharing his experience, strength and hope.”