Our Story

Seneca Review, founded in 1970 by James Crenner and Ira Sadoff, is published twice yearly, spring and fall, by Hobart & William Smith Colleges Press.

The journal publishes poetry, essays, reviews, translations, and work that is "Beyond Category." For more than fifty years, Seneca Review has established an abiding legacy of literary innovation while publishing numerous laureates and award-winning poets, including Seamus Heaney, Rita Dove, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, Nathaniel Mackey, Wisława Szymborska, Charles Simic, Alice Notley, W.S. Merwin, Donald Revell, Kazim Ali, Eleni Sikelianos, and James Longenbach. Alongside such writers, the editors also consistently publish new and emerging talents.

In 1997, Seneca Review began publishing the "lyric essay"—creative nonfiction that borders on prose poetry—under the leadership of Deborah Tall and the associate editorship of John D'Agata. In that genre, we have featured work by Anne Carson, Eula Biss, Mary Ruefle, Fanny Howe, Wayne Koestenbaum, Carole Maso, Jenny Boully, David Shields, Joe Wenderoth, Ander Monson, Terry Tempest Williams, and many others.

Past special features have included our "Beyond Category" double-issue; Irish women's poetry and Irish prison poetry; "On Anxiety"; Polish, Catalan, and Albanian poetry; an issue of essays devoted to Hayden Carruth; and our We Might As Well Call it the Lyric Essay anthology.