Morrow, Bradford, 1951-....

Founded in 1981 by its editor, Bradford Morrow, who himself published the first three issues; subsequently published by David Godine, Collier Macmillan, and, beginning with issue 15 (1990) Bard College, where Morrow is professor of literature. Beginning with issue 14 (1989) it has constituted a semi-annual series of anthologies on a single topic, many of them guest-edited. Writers published in Conjunctions include many associated with Brown University, especially with the Graduate Program in Literary Arts (known before Dec. 2003 as the Graduate Program in Creative Writing), e.g. John Hawkes, Robert Coover, John Edgar Wideman, Robert Creeley, Mei-mei Bersenbrugge, Keith Waldrop, Rosmarie Waldrop, Forrest Gander, C.D. Wright, James Laughlin, Mary Caponegro, Thalia Field, Paula Vogel, Edwidge Danticat, Carole Maso, and Ben Marcus.

Professor of literature, Bard College (1990- ); editor of Conjunctions; writer. Novels: Come Sunday (1988), The almanac branch (1991), Trinity Fields (1995), Giovanni's gift (1997), Ariel's crossing (2002). Poetry collections: Posthumes: selected poems 1977-1982; A bestiary (1991). Editor of numerous books including The complete poems of Kenneth Rexroth (2002; with Sam Hamill). Bradford Morrow issue of The review of contemporary fiction published in 2000. Founding editor, Conjunctions (1981- ). Literary executor of Kenneth Rexroth. Recipient, O. Henry Prize (2003); Academy Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998). Member, board of trustees, PEN American Center (1998-2002).

When the Valentine Steinbeck collection became available for purchase it was a major event to Steinbeck collectors, dealers, librarians, and Scholars. There was material in it that had not previously been noted in the otherwise comprehensive Goldstone and Payne BIBLIOGRAPHY, a reference work based on forty years collecting activity by Adrian Goldstone and the University of Texas at Austin. Morrow's catalogue, because of its detail and the major collection it describes, became a necessary companion volume to the Goldstone/Payne bibliography. It was designed and printed by Patrick Keagh, the well-known West Coast printer, and was his first large-scale job.

Conjunctions is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow.

The journal publishes innovative fiction, poetry, criticism, drama, art and interviews by both emerging and established writers. It provides a forum for nearly 1,000 writers and artists "whose work challenges accepted forms and modes of expression, experiments with language and thought, and is fully realized art", according to the "Letter From the Editor" on its Web site. It aims to maintain consistently high editorial and production quality with the intention of attracting a large and varied audience. The project is meant to present wide variety of individual voices. The publication is unusually thick, often containing about 400 pages per issue.

Conjunctions' editorial approach is often collaborative. Both the editor and the distinguished staff of active contributing editors - including Walter Abish, Chinua Achebe, John Ashbery, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Mary Caponegro, Elizabeth Frank, William H. Gass, Peter Gizzi, Jorie Graham, Robert Kelly, Ann Lauterbach, Norman Manea, W.S. Merwin, Rick Moody, Joanna Scott, Peter Straub, William Weaver and John Edgar Wideman - rely on the advice of fellow writers across the country. Final selection of the material is made by the editor.

From Wikipedia.

Bradford Morrow is an American novelist, essayist, poet, editor, and writer of short fiction. He was born on April 8, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Littleton, Colorado. In 1968 he was awarded an American Field Service scholarship to finish his senior year of high school as a foreign exchange student at the Liceo Scientifico in Cuneo, Italy. In 1972 he received his Bachelor of Arts degree (summa cum laude) from the University of Colorado, Boulder. After doing graduate work in English and comparative literature at Yale University, he began work on a bibliography of the works of Wyndham Lewis, which was published in 1978 by Black Sparrow Press.

Morrow is the founding editor of the literary journal Conjunctions . He became the literary executor of the poet Kenneth Rexroth's estate in 1982 and has edited a number of Rexroth’s books, including The Selected Poems of Kenneth Rexroth (1984), Classics Revisited (1986), World Outside the Window: Selected Essays of Kenneth Rexroth (1987), and More Classics Revisited (1989). With Sam Hamill he coedited The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth (2002).

Morrow is the author of six novels: Come Sunday (1988), The Almanac Branch (1991), which was a finalist for the 1992 PEN/Faulkner Award; Trinity Fields (1994), a finalist for the 1995 Los Angeles Times Book Award; Giovanni’s Gift (1997), Ariel’s Crossing (2002), and The Diviner’s Tale (2011). He also wrote two books for children: A Bestiary (1991), illustrated by Gahan Wilson, and Didn’t Didn’t Do It (2006).

Morrow’s short fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies. A collection of his short stories, The Uninnocent, was published in 2011. He also co-edited two anthologies: The New Gothic (1991), and The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death (2011).

Morrow has written a number of poetry collections, including Passing from the Provinces (1981), Posthumes (1982), Danae’s Progress (1982), The Preferences (1983) and After a Charme (1984).

Morrow was elected to the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa while at the University of Colorado. He was awarded a Danforth Fellowship to do graduate work at Yale. His professional honors include the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998), the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM) Editor's award in 1984 and 1988, the Pushcart Prize (2002) for the short story "Amazing Grace", the O. Henry Prize (2003) for the short story "Lush", the PEN/Nora Magid Award for excellence in literary journal editing (2007), and a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction (2007). The Review of Contemporary Fiction published a “Bradford Morrow issue” in 2000.

Before he began his writing and academic career, Morrow worked as a professional jazz musician and music teacher and as a rare book archivist in California and New York. Morrow has taught at Princeton, Columbia and Brown Universities. In 1990 he joined the faculty of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he is currently a Professor of Literature and a Bard Center Fellow. He is a member of the PEN American Center, where he was a member of the board of trustees from 1998-2002; the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (formerly the CCLM), where he has served on the advisory board since 1986; and the New Writing Foundation.