June 1, 2024
Our Spring 2024 issue (10.2), which features a special section on “Updike and the West,” is our nineteenth to date, marking our twelve-and-a-half-year anniversary. Such numbers are not typically singled out for celebration, but due to COVID, we neglected noting certain milestones, such as our tenth anniversary. Suffice it to say we’re pleased to be here all these years and issues later, and we’re grateful for and encouraged by the steady interest in the writings and life of John Updike. Our plan, going forward, is to keep publishing two issues per year, though if there’s ever a need to increase or decrease that output, we will do so. We also look forward to the period leading up to the centennial of Updike’s birth, in 2032.
“Updike and the West” emerged from the 7th Biennial John Updike Society Conference, which was held in Tucson, Arizona, in late September 2023. As I mention in the section’s introduction, I was initially dubious of our convening an Updike conference in the West. While it’s not difficult to draw lines of connection between Updike and hundreds of places and writers from around the world, his relationship to the American West would appear to be somewhat thin. But these essays, along with the conference, have demonstrated that the topic is indeed worth exploring, revealing to us the benefits of thinking about Updike ways that are not familiar or typical.
Our current issue includes several new contributors, including German film director and producer Jan Schütte, Updike casitas owner Jan Emery, politically minded academic Louis Gordon, and master’s candidate Presleigh-Anne Johnson. We welcome their contributions and hope their presence in the JUR will encourage other newcomers to submit material.
In addition to new contributors, our current issue includes the work of critics whose names have become increasingly familiar in recent years: Sue Norton, Matthew Shipe, and Christopher Love. All three have written excellent pieces on a range of topics in the JUR, and I hope they will continue to do so. I would also like to express my gratitude to Peter J. Bailey and Donald J. Greiner, who have consistently and ardently contributed to our journal since its inception in 2011; their work over the decades has played an important role in our understanding of Updike’s writing.
Finally, I would like to thank our managing editor, Nicola Mason, who has been, since the beginning, so crucial to our existence and success. Nicola is a master of many trades—a writer and editor, a beekeeper, a visual artist, and so much more—and she is currently overseeing Acre Books, which annually publishes new fiction, poetry, and other literary forms. Thanks are also due to our designer, Barbara Neely Bourgoyne, who has created many marvelous and memorable covers. While I am often complimented on the aesthetics of the JUR, Nicola and Barbara are the ones truly deserving credit.
With thanks to all who have read and supported the JUR these last twelve-and-a-half years.
James Schiff