We’re Big in Australia

As part of the ongoing long, strange trip of being nominated for a half dozen Ellies, I was interviewed today for “The Book Show” with Ramona Koval on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Koval says:

Few things spark the public imagination like a ‘dark horse’, a rank outsider that pips the favourites at the post. Well, the high-stakes world of American magazine publishing could be about to see an upset. A small literary journal, called the Virginia Quarterly Review has upstaged the likes of Harpers, The New Yorker and National Geographic by receiving six nominations for the upcoming National Magazine Awards in the US.

Only the Atlantic Monthly snared more nominations. However, such unexpected plaudits for a relatively little-known and decidedly non-mainstream publication (though old and revered) sent journalists and industry observers scrambling in an attempt to figure out who or what the Virginia Quarterly Review was. In an observation from Meghan O’Rourke on the Slate Magazine website: ‘It was as if a scrappy farm team had demolished the Yankees in an exhibition game’.

If you want to hear the interview, you can stream or download the audio here.