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For nearly seventy years, The Kenyon Review has been the world's best known and most honored literary magazine in the English-speaking world. The Kenyon Review's editorial focus is to identify exceptionally talented emerging writers, especially from diverse communities, and publish their work (fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, reviews, etc.) alongside the many distinguished, established writers featured in its pages. KR was founded in 1939 by poet-critic John Crowe Ransom. During his 21-year tenure, Ransom published such internationally known writers as Robert Penn Warren and Delmore Schwartz, as well as younger writers-Flannery O'Connor, Robert Lowell, and Peter Taylor, to name a few. Recent years have seen new work by established authors E. L. Doctorow, Louise Erdrich, Seamus Heaney, and A.S. Byatt, as well as new voices-such as, Meghan O'Rourke, Roy Kesey, Kellie Wells, and Ron Rash-featured in KR.

KR was founded in 1939 by poet-critic John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. During Ransom's 21-year tenure, it was the best-known and most influential literary magazine in the English-speaking world. In 1969, discouraged by the quarterly's financial burdens, Kenyon College ceased publication of KR. The journal was revived in 1979, and in 1990, Marilyn Hacker was hired as KR's first full-time editor. She quickly broadened KR's scope to include more minority and marginalized viewpoints. In 1994, David Lynn, Kenyon English professor, was named editor and a board of trustees was created to ensure the magazine's financial sustainability. Since then, the organization has expanded greatly, producing a series of well-regarded workshops and undertaking a variety of electronic initiatives.