Ninth Letter Editorial Staff Fall 2016
- Editor and Fiction Editor: Jodee Stanley
- Creative Nonfiction Editor: Alex Shakar
- Poetry Editor: Janice Harrington
- Web Edition Editor: Roya Khatiblou
- Assistant Editors: Michael Hurley, Katherine Kendig, Jess Williard
- Editor-at-Large: Philip Graham
About Ninth Letter
Ninth Letter is a collaborative arts and literary project produced by the Creative Writing Program and School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Edited and designed by faculty and students as part of the core curricula of both programs, the journal's mission is to present original literary writing of exceptional quality, illuminated by cutting-edge graphic design.
Work published in Ninth Letter has been selected for many awards anthologies such as Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Best Creative Nonfiction, Best New Fantasy, Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and New Stories from the Midwest. The journal has also received many national and international awards for graphic design, and has been featured in the design awards annuals of both STEP Inside Design and HOW Magazine. In 2005 Ninth Letter was named Best New Literary Journal by the Council of Learned Journals, an affiliate of the Modern Language Association.
In addition to our dedication to literary and artistic excellence, Ninth Letter also maintains a strong commitment to our role in the curricula of the School of Art + Design and the Creative Writing Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
In the Creative Writing Program, graduate and undergraduate students in English and Creative Writing have the opportunity to enroll in editing and publishing courses in which they gain hands-on experience in editorial work.
In Art + Design, graduate and undergraduate students participate in a Ninth Letter production course, in which the students design a complete issue of the journal under faculty direction. These students finish the course with valuable experience that has real-world applications, along with nationally distributed designs for their portfolios.
Students in both programs who have completed the Ninth Letter courses have gone on to career success in the fields of graphic design and literary publishing, thanks in part to their experience working with Ninth Letter.
