From the Book Review Editor

From th e Book Review Editor Evelyn I. Funda I’ve been a member of the Western Literature Association for a number of years, and long before that, I knew plenty of the rau­ cous and raunchy legends of the W LA, thanks to wonderful story­ tellers such as Jim Maguire and Glenn Selander. In addition to my own scholarship, I have written a number of book reviews, I try (as we all do) to keep up with the explosion of criticism and fic­ tion in western studies, and I’ve taught the craft of reviewing in a graduate class or two. But as I’ve been working to get my feet under me, so to speak, in my new role as WAL book review edi­ tor, I’ve been wondering what ever made me think I was qualified to do this job. Kate Boyes, who is both my friend and predecessor as WAL book review editor, used to tell me about the pleasures of book review editing: the satisfaction of keeping up in a fast-growing field, the gratification of establishing professional relationships with a wide variety of people, and, of course, that tactile joy every bibliophile knows when they touch and smell the pages of a new book. It was, Kate assured me, her favorite part of her work as assistant editor. And while all of that is certainly true (sometimes I wish I could take books home with me rather than send them out as soon as we get them), I am also recognizing that being a book review editor isn’t just about loving books but also about being willing to make decisions that will shape how those books are received by my colleagues. Over the past months as I’ve talked to W LA members, studied the book review sections of other academic journals, and begun the day-to-day work of managing the stacks of books we receive at WAL, I have been considering a number of questions, including how other journals handle book reviews (especially in terms of length and the choice of books reviewed), how our readers use the book review section (whether to choose a work for a personal library or for a class syllabus, to stay current in the field, or to identify the 74 W A L 3 3 (1 ) SPRING 1 9 9 8 latest trends and controversies), and what should be the role in an academic journal for reviews of creative writing (poetry, narrative essay, fiction). These are questions Melody and I posed to those who attended the editorial board meeting last fall in Albuquerque, and while the answers were, naturally, varied, I came away with a sense that we all believe ours is a vital field and a book review section of the premier academic journal in that field can and should accurate­ ly and comprehensively reflect the vigorous, ongoing dialogue hap­ pening among our scholars. My informal survey of how other academic journals manage their book reviews offered a few possibilities for change. I found that the number of pages we devote to book reviews (compared to those devoted to articles) is within the general range of other journals; however, individual reviews in other journals are longer than ours, allowing the reviewer to consider an argument more fully or suggest how the work fits into an existing critical context. Naturally, that means while books are discussed more fully, fewer books get reviewed in the final count. But it’s a trade-off that is worth it for an academ­ ic journal, I think, and so you will see over the next few issues longer reviews and more essay reviews that deal with multiple works cen­ tered around genre, theme, or region. I also found that many academic journals do not review works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction prose, but did that mean, I wondered, that we should cease to review creative works? The answer, clearly, was absolutely not. The association’s membership, for instance, is a creative bunch, and to do away with those reviews would mean to ignore the creative endeavors of our own readers. Not only that, but (as one member pointed out...