Volume 25, Issue 2 (2012) Special Commemorative Edition: Celebrating 175 Years of Literary & Artistic Success

DePauw University turned 175 years old on January 10, 2012. That is quite an accomplishment. The literary magazine tradition at DePauw is scarcely less impressive, with the first publication of such a magazine coming only 10 years after the University’s charter was signed. In order to celebrate DePauw’s literary tradition, we have decided to do things a bit differently for this semester’s A Midwestern Review. As a way to thank our literary progenitors, we have republished undergraduate works from DePauw alumni who have flourished in literary careers. But we also aim to showcase the current pool of literary talent, as these writers too have made their mark on DePauw’s literary tradition. This publication is a confluence of past and present. We have woven works from such alumni as Max Ehrmann ’94 (that’s 1894), whose poem “Desiderata” sparked an authorship controversy; John Jakes ’53, whose early short story reprinted here presages the success of his bestselling Kent Family Chronicles; Barbara Kingsolver ’77, whose novels have been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and Pulitzer Prize; and Micah Ling ’03, winner of the 2011 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Emerging Author Award. We hope that this interwoven timeline of alumni highlights the genealogy of the DePauw literary tradition.

Rather than stratify this semester’s publication by genre, we have decided to organize the book according to anniversary-charged themes. These broadly defined themes are Time, Mementos, Emplaced, and Thawing. Each themed section features work from the past and present, poetry and artwork, fiction and non-fiction. We hope that this thematic progression reflects the emotions that alumni and current students experience while celebrating the 175th Anniversary and their time at DePauw. Happy Anniversary, DePauw, and thank you.