Editor of North Carolina Literary Review recognized for accomplishments

Margaret Bauer, the editor of the North Carolina Literary Review, has been recognized for her leadership and work with the journal by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.

The CELJ announced Bauer as the winner of the Parnassus Award for Significant Editorial Achievement at the group’s annual meeting held during the Modern Language Association conference in December inChicago.

Bauer, who is also Rives Chair of Southern Literature in the Department of English at EastCarolina University, has served as editor of the NCLR since 1997. The literary journal is housed in ECU’s Department of English. Bauer, who earned her doctorate in Southern literature from the University ofTennessee, joined the ECU faculty in 1996.
The CELJ judges commented about Bauer’s work: “In 2007, the journal marked the 100th anniversary of its founding institution, East CarolinaUniversity, as well as the completion of its serialized…dictionary of North Carolinawriters. Its design quality is impressive, but what most impressed our judges was the sheer tensile power of the writing, a signal tribute to the sustained work of editor Margaret D. Bauer….”

In response to her award, Bauer said, “In 1993 NCLR founding editor Alex Albright received CELJ’s best new journal award in recognition of his achievement in creating this unique amalgam of literary magazine with elements of the scholarly journal. Alex’s were large shoes to fill when I took over as editor in 1997, and I appreciate this award’s testimony that NCLR continues to live up to its early promise.”

The Parnassus Award for Significant Editorial Achievement is based on a single issue of a journal published within the previous three years “that constitutes an unusually high realization of the belletristic journal’s mission in combination with application of the highest standards of “learned” editorial practice–understood to encompass editing for selection of high-quality content, compelling arrangement of contents, style, visual appeal and readability, etc. … The award recognizes significant realization of editorial mission.”

The Council of Editors of Learned Journals, an allied organization of the Modern Language Association, is an association of more than 450 editors of scholarly journals devoted to study in the humanistic disciplines.