The Georgia Review: A Discussion with Gerald Maa and Maggie Su

Gerald Maa has been The Georgia Review’s director and editor since 2019. During his tenure there, the magazine has won the National Magazine Award for Best Fiction as well as Best New Poets, and the Robert Dau/PEN Prize. Prior to this role, Maa was the editor-in-chief of The Asian American Literary Review with Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis. Maggie Su is the associate prose editor for The Georgia Review and the author of the forthcoming novel Blob (Harper 2025). She holds a PhD in fiction from the University of Cincinnati and her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The New England Review, TriQuarterly Review, and elsewhere.

The Georgia Review has a long, distinguished tradition of publishing writings vetted by a fully salaried staff. In this case, first up in the discussion is the essay “Campus Maximum” by Christopher Kempf. It explores the social justice versus academic freedom tussle that Cornell University found itself dealing with after an African-American student group took over one of the campus’s main buildings in 1969. To say the essay explores town/gown tensions would be to slight the exploration of multiple, conflicted views taken by everybody involved in the unfolding drama. In “Chopping Up the Gun” by Mary Margaret Alvarado witnesses a weapons turn-in program held in Aurora, Colorado where “cars wait, as though for French fries, or absolution.” Having former weapons transformed into sculpture pieces or other objects invites a variety of responses. In L. J. Sysko’s “Inside Lane,” an ominous foreboding exists among a girl’s swim team where the coach kisses a team member without consent, and may be on the hook for worse before losing his job. Finally, in Brian Truong’s “Fake Handbags,” an Asian-American family’s shopping trips to New York City for knock-off luxury goods doesn’t provide a brand halo that can protect the family members from the dad’s angry outbursts.

Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc.

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