The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Taylor Gearhart Ladette Randolph took over as editor of Ploughshares this semester, replacing DeWitt Henry, a journal cofounder. She previously edited the University of Nebraska's literary magazine, The Prairie Schooner, and is also a published novelist.

The jewel in Emerson College’s literary publication crown, Ploughshares, has a new name atop its masthead. Fiction writer and former editor of the University of Nebraska’s Prairie Schooner, Ladette Randolph, took over as editor-in-chief this week, replacing DeWitt Henry, who helped found the journal in 1971, he said.

Randolph will also teach courses at Emerson, beginning with a graduate workshop this spring. She has served as the editor-in-chief for the Prairie Schooner since 1996 and has worked at the University of Nebraska Press since 1999. She takes over for Henry, who stepped in as interim executive director a year ago after 15 years away from the editorship, when editor Don Lee left the journal.

“Ladette is news,” Henry said. “And she’s going to make Ploughshares news, more than it [already] is.”

Katherine Setzer, a third year graduate student who has worked in the Ploughshares office since 2006, was pleased that Randolph is filling the position.

“I think she’s going to be really good because she’s really interested in making sure Ploughshares works well with Emerson College,” the writing, literature and publishing major said.

Setzer, who started as an intern at the journal and is now a graduate assistant, said Randolph has shown a great interest in getting to know everyone in the Ploughshares world, both staff and readers.

“Everybody’s been so nice, and so welcoming, and I’ve actually found the city very friendly,” Randolph said.

The new editor said she’s seen several similarities between Ploughshares and Prairie Schooner. One key difference, she said, is the unique guest editor policy at Emerson. Each issue has a different prominent writer as guest editor, who chooses a portion of the work that will be featured in that particular issue.

“I find that kind of editorial philosophy a very interesting one,” she said.

Randolph has a long history of experience in selecting writers for the two book series she started at the University of Nebraska Press, according to an e-mail from Heather Lundine, editor-in-chief and acquisitions editor at the press.

“I love the philosophy of Ploughshares,” she said. “I like the idea that you would invite new voices into the magazine, through not having this dominant editorial vision, but by having a kind of ecumenical vision of writing, which I think is so important to cultivate and keep alive.”

Randolph expects finding new guest editors to be one of the most fun parts of her job at the journal, which is published three times annually. She also discussed her experience as an acquiring editor working with scholarly writers and literary criticism. She expressed the possibility of bringing some of these writers to Ploughshares to write profiles and other content.

Randolph said she is not planning to make any major changes to the magazine.

“I’m not a radical. I’m not coming in with an eye toward making big, sweeping changes,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that every day in small details we don’t make changes.” She did express an interest in expanding the journal’s use of its Web site and blog.

Henry said he hopes to see Randolph bring the Ploughshares Web site, which at the time of its creation was a state-of-the-art model for other literary magazines, up to date. He would also like to see Randolph bring her experience in selecting and acquiring books to the Ploughshares family. “Most of the leading magazines also produce books,” said Henry, who hopes that in the future Ploughshares will also be able to go in that direction.

Henry sees Randolph as the next step in the evolution of the journal. He said former editor Don Lee, his first MFA student, “established [Ploughshares] as a place where everybody expects to find tomorrow’s classics today.”

He stressed the magazine is known for prescience, having gained a reputation for picking the early work of prominent writers. He expressed interest in seeing Randolph’s choices for future guest editors.

“Particularly under Don Lee, the outreach to new guest editors has been a description of the literary landscape of America,” Henry said. After current and upcoming issues guest edited by Jean Valentine, Eleanor Wilner, Kathryn Harrison and Tony Hoagland, the next choices will be Randolph’s.

“She is an edgy fiction writer. Not in style so much as in stirring material,” Henry said. He said he would not be surprised to see her bring something new and different to the journal.

Lundine had nothing but praise for her former colleague.

“She was a mentor to many of us, largely for her impeccable taste, ability to stay calm within the storm, and gracious treatment of colleagues and authors,” she said in an e-mail. “She started memoir and fiction series here at the Press (American Lives and Flyover Fiction, respectively), both of which have included very interesting and well-received books.”

“Even the darker, more experimental titles in these series are full of quirky charm and intelligence, much like Ladette. As a writer and thoughtful editor, she is well respected in the writing community, which will no doubt be as helpful at Ploughshares as it was here.”

Randolph also took the opportunity to reassure the Emerson community that she is going to take very good care of Ploughshares and is excited about her new position.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “I’m just thrilled. I’m so happy to be here … I think it’s a great opportunity for me and my work and I hope the college will feel the same way.”

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools