Jeffers Studies: Annual Report for 2024
Work on Jeffers Studies for this past year has focused on three things:
- enhancing the journal’s staffing
- setting the journal up as an open access digital publication
- starting the process of building content for the next issue (Vol. 23) slated for fall 2025
Staffing: (https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/js/editorialboard.html)
The journal now has an Editor whose appointment has been reviewed and formalized (using the proposed bylaws revision) by the RJA President (Aaron Yoshinobu) in consultation with the Advisory Board.
We have also constituted an Editorial Board (using the mechanism in the proposed bylaws revision) to provide editorial oversight and to advise on the journal’s policies and procedures.
We have recruited a number of RJA members to work on the journal, including Peter Quigley (Associate Editor); Josh Bartlee (Book Review Editor); Robert Atwan and Terry Beers (Contributing Editors); and Zach Abramovitz, Diane Campbell, and Aaron Yoshinobu who will be contributing as well.
Open Access Publication:
Milner Library of Illinois State University is providing Jeffers Studies access—at no charge—to the resources of Bepress through its contract with this subsidiary of Elsevier. The Bepress platform will not only publish Jeffers Studies, it will also make the articles of the journal’s back issues keyword searchable, and it provides tools for managing the review, editing, and production of submitted articles. Having the full archive of Jeffers Studies on this platform and using it to publish the journal will substantially increase access to the journal’s research and resources, since Jeffers Studies will now be included in the catalogues of most all college and university libraries.
Our Bepress site has now been designed and is up and running on the Bepress system.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/js/
By the time of the Business Meeting, we expect to have Vol. 22 of Jeffers Studies (our last print issue) up on the site as the “current issue” and the first phase of uploading the back file completed and searchable. Late this spring or early summer we will begin populating the site with content Vol. 23. When Vol. 23 is completed in the fall, a print on demand option will be added for those who wish to purchase a hard copy of the new issue rather than read it online or read it as a downloadable PDF.
Building Content for Volume 23:
Volume 23 of Jeffers Studies will introduce several new features:
- The Jeffers Critical Heritage series being led by Terry Beers. These articles will recuperate the analyses and arguments of important books from past decades and consider their implications current and future explorations of Jeffers’ work. The first of these will be in the upcoming issue.
- A renewed emphasis on publishing shorter articles that offer readings of individual poems. Robert Atwan is leading this initiative, and we expect three of these “Notes” in the upcoming issue.
- The Robinson Jeffers Interview. We plan to feature in each issue, including the upcoming issue, an interview with a major scholar or accomplished poet focused on Jeffers and his work. The initial interview in this series will be with Steven Axelrod, a major scholar of American poetry.
Because Volume 23 coincides with the centennial of Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems, we are planning several features related to the publication of this quintessential Jeffers collection.
It is my hope that the Critical Heritage series, renewed emphasis on short analytical notes to complement full-length research articles, and the interview series will provide valuable content and also help us have sufficient content to publish the journal annually. That said, it is important to recognize that RJA programming that deepens and extends the critical and scholarly conversation both increases the journal’s significance and makes the journal more viable by helping to increase the number of people with research and analysis that they want to share with the Jeffers community and the field of literary studies. The more robust the journal, the more it can enhance RJA. The more active RJA is, the more this can enhance Jeffers Studies, since papers presented at scholarly meetings and research shared at RJA webinars are often the seedlings from which articles grow
What’s next:
- Completing the migration of the archive of Jeffers Studies and Robinson Jeffers Newsletter to the Bepress server so that all content is keyword searchable and retrievable as individual articles
- Completing the work on Vol. 23 of Jeffers Studies for publication this fall
- Setting up a print on demand option for Vol. 23 and future issues of the journal and adding that option to the Bepress site
What’s missing:
We haven’t, as yet, found anyone willing and able to lead or coordinate work on an annual bibliography of Jeffers-related commentary and scholarship.
Tim Hunt, Editor
Jeffers Studies
February 7, 2025