1The Journal of the Short Story in English is Forty! This anniversary has us both looking back at our history as well as looking towards our future.

2The first issue of our journal included an essay by Marcienne Rocard on Alice Munro, the Canadian short story writer who passed away in May 2024. At the time, not much had been written about her. Rocard’s early work in Canadian literature undoubtedly helped lay the foundations of critical studies that have since appeared, and attention to Munro has been a steady feature of the journal ever since, and well before she received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. The journal devoted a special issue to her in 2010, and articles about her stories continue to be submitted to us on a regular basis.

3Also featured in the journal’s inaugural issue was an article by Simone Vauthier on William Goyen. On July 9, 1983, a few months before his death, Goyen received a copy of this first issue and eagerly read Vauthier’s article. He wrote Vauthier a letter that not only congratulated the journal, but also singled out her article for particular praise:

It is such a wonderful thing you have written. I am quite stunned by it—I had not known so much about what I had written (“Pore Perrie”). The brilliant price in Cahiers de la nouvelle came yesterday. Thank you profoundly. . . . I cannot express my gratitude for you. Without you—already—my work would be less. And this new gift comes at a time when I have been suffering ill health . . . , and need a sense of the life of my work, which is healing. I am beginning to recover noticeably and have hopes for the renewal of vitality for work. Your affirmations have already helped. (Letter to S. Vauthier, July 10, 1983)

4Looking back at the journal’s past issues, we find many names of short story writers who have been featured in our special issues, both canonical and contemporary—Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Spencer, Ron Rash, A.S. Byatt, Daphne du Maurier, to name just a few, and not to mention our forthcoming issues on E.P. Jones, Tennessee Williams, W. Somerset Maugham, among others. Our journal remains the leading critical voice on major short story writers in English. At the same time, we have always been in close conversation with contemporary writers, and their responses to us echo Goyen’s early reception of Vauthier’s essay.

5To celebrate the journal’s fortieth anniversary, the editorial committee invited its board members to contribute critical essays, short stories, and interviews. We are thankful to all the contributors for making this issue a rich intellectual celebration of the short story featuring critical as well as creative endeavors!

6In this issue, readers will discover a variety of critical essays on classic and contemporary writers, including two essays on Munro, bringing us back to our beginnings, as well as highlighting the vitality of the form to which Munro has brought renown. Readers will also have the pleasure of finding new and old short stories in this issue. We are especially grateful to Elizabeth Cox and Jill McCorkle for entrusting us with their latest work, to Charlotte Arnautou for digging into G.K. Chesterton’s archive to present us with one of his unfinished stories, and to Polly Paulusma for bringing an unpublished story by Angela Carter to our attention. We would like to thank Aurélie Reuillon for her administrative help in securing the rights to publish Carter’s short story, and Joane Gautier, for her careful editorial management. Last, but not least, we want to show our appreciation to the Presses Universitaires de Rennes for publishing the journal, and to Xavier Lachazette, for his editorial work on the electronic version.

7We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Ben Forkner, the journal’s founding father, John Paine, who served as North American Editor for many years, and Emmanuel Vernadakis who has devoted time and energy to help the journal thrive—this anniversary issue is dedicated to them. And finally, we are especially grateful to Lisa Alther, Elizabeth Cox, and Jill McCorkle for their exclusive interview with the journal, where they share their ideas on the American short story today and on the genre itself.

8We have issues planned until Autumn 2027, including some exciting projects for special issues, as we look ahead to our fiftieth anniversary and reflect on our role as the leading journal on the short story in English.