I have only one copy of that first issue of Short Story that I keep carefully shelved near my desk where I can lift my eyes and prove its existence. The issue contains stories by Thomas E. Kennedy, Pamela Painter, Mark Spencer, Victor Walter, and W.D. Wetherell. At my invitation, five of the most important short story theorists- Norman Friedman, John Gerlach, Susan Lohafer, Charles E. May, and Ian Reid- contributed original essays. Book reviews by Alice Daya, Robert M. Luscher, and E.P. Walkiewicz complete the volume. Funds for the first issue were provided by Ia Hasan, now Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Claflin University.

Since that time Short Story has gained the support of several institutions, beginning with the University of Northern Iowa and, at different times, the University of New Orleans, SUNY at Oneonta, Claflin University (formerly Claflin College), and through the whole ten years, the University of Texas at Brownsville, where Farhat Iftekharuddin, first as Managing Editor and currently as Editor has shepherded the whole operation.

There are several other journals devoted to the short story, but they concentrate on what may loosely be termed the “creative” or the “analytic,” stories or criticism, but not both. Still there has always been a close connection between the author and the critic of short stories, indeed often an affection. Many short story writers are adept critics and scholars, and many who identify themselves chiefly as academics also write short stories. Our thinking for this first issue was to put together a journal that reflected the syncretic interests of readers and writers and, though the first issue contained no interviews, publishing them was a part of the total conception and was quickly realized. I hope someday we will be in a position to reprint this first issue so it will have a wider distribution.