Across from the swing set outside of Twilight Hall, in the New England Review office, a box of newly minted issues of Volume 45.1 sits beside a shelf of archival issues dating back to the magazine’s founding in 1978. Led by Editor Carolyn Kuebler ’90 and Managing Editor Leslie Sainz, NER delicately toes the line between maintaining a prestigious reputation and a welcoming appeal.
Started by friends and then-colleagues Sydney Lea and D.E. Axinn professor of English and creative writing, Jay Parini, The New England Review (NER) is a literary magazine on a mission to publish distinguished and debut authors alike on a quarterly basis. The magazine has been sponsored by Middlebury College since 1987, providing students with opportunities to engage with important and high-quality art and to better understand the publishing process.
“I think it’s terrific for the college to support this journal, now decades into its life. It’s been a wonderful resource on campus, a place where students can get hands-on experience of editing,” Parini wrote in an email to the Campus. “The quarterly draws eyes to Middlebury as a place where writing — creative writing — is valued, even central.”
NER is a Swiss Army Knife of poetry, prose, nonfiction and translation, which, despite receiving thousands of submissions each year, manages to find the time to cultivate a sense of community between authors, readers and students.
“It’s great to have a journal but it’s even better to have a journal that students can learn things from,” Kuebler said.
With student-related events programming including reading groups and student reading nights, semester-long internships and the NER Out Loud Podcast show, the NER team makes it easy for students to learn something valuable from the magazine’s presence on campus.
“I think it’s really important for a magazine that’s published by a college to have involvement with the college,” Kuebler said. “I also think it’s great for us to have the energy and the new perspectives that students bring and I think it’s good for them too.”
Current NER intern Cole Chaudhari ’26 agreed.
“I think students should engage with the NER because — at least for those interested in all things literary/publishing — it offers each intern an experiential window into the real nuts and bolts of a literary magazine,” Chaudhari wrote in an email to the Campus. “The NER internships allow students to participate directly in the making, and to actively contribute towards a product that usually is only presented in completed form.”
And it takes a village to get an issue of the NER to its completed form. The magazine’s submissions are looked over by about 30 readers who work with genre editors to compile a finalist pile that reaches Keubler’s desk. Based on Keubler’s decisions, pieces are then refined and copy-edited by Sainz, who collaborates with authors to publish a piece that is as close to perfect as possible.
“I’d say my favorite part of editing is working closely with authors,” Sainz said. This intensive editing process requires substantial communication, and Sainz noted, “It’s just so satisfying to know that I had a part in presenting someone else’s work that I deeply believe in and that they’re pleased with. I mean that’s so important to us. And I will say, NER is very known for its intimate editorial exchanges and it’s something that we’re really proud of.”
Kuebler affirmed the efforts NER makes to be prompt in communicating with writers, and maintaining the writers’ original sentiments in the final pieces.
“We try to create a sense of community among writers, even writers we don’t publish because I mean, that’s the vast majority. We publish less than 1% of the submissions we get,” she added.
Kuebler has a debut novel coming out in May, and Sainz published a collection of poetry last year. Kuebler and Sainz know the struggles and vulnerabilities of the road to publication as intimately as anyone.
As long-time writers, editors and readers, the pair are also well-acquainted with the pleasures and trials of studying English and pursuing literary careers.
“My advice is, as far as job opportunities go, there is far more that an English major is qualified for than what they’re initially told,” Sainz said. “I think it’s just a matter of stretching one’s imagination a bit on how you can translate very concrete critical analysis skills and even practical textual skills into a variety of different positions.”
Keubler agreed with the wide applications of the English major.
“The cross-cultural understanding that English majors get from reading all kinds of different literature so there’s a way in which you can understand different ways of speaking, different voices and bring those together that I think English majors are particularly well-equipped to understand the way other people communicate,” she said.
After attending Middlebury in the ’80s, Kuebler founded the book review magazine Rain Taxi and joined NER in 2004 as a Managing Editor. She became the second-ever Editor-in-Chief of NER in 2014.
“Being back here is really cool because I get to see what students are up to now and the students definitely bring in a burst of energy into the door and they have so much interest,” Kuebler said. “They’re really thoughtful people. We really love our reading group where we have students respond to submissions and their responses are inevitably going to be different from ours and so we love to hear what they have to say.”
“It’s really exciting to think we’re fostering the next generation of readers and authors and editors through these opportunities by passing along the knowledge we have and we’ve seen that come back tenfold,” Sainz added.
NER is a prime demonstration of the high-quality community it takes to cultivate a high-quality publication. A community whose zeal is reflected in the reputable and exceptional work they curate.
Editors’ Note: Cole Chaudhari ’26 is a News Editor for The Campus.
Catherine Goodrich '24 (she/her) is an Arts and Culture Editor.
She previously served as a staff writer. Catherine is an English major and Film minor hailing from Birmingham, Alabama. She is the prose editor for Blackbird Literary Arts Journal and works concessions at the Middlebury Marquis where she's developed a love of trivia.
