March 9, 2022, 9:45am
Details (screenshot below) of an announcement slated for today were revealed on Twitter last night, and were confirmed by Conjunctions founder and editor Bradford Morrow: Bard College is going to cease funding the legendary literary journal at the end of this calendar year.
Not only has Conjunctions published the likes of William H. Gass, Rick Moody, Kelly Link, John Ashbery, John Edgar Wideman, Richard Powers, Joyce Carol Oates, and more, it’s also been host to emerging and innovative writers working in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.
Bard College—a small, idyllically situated liberal arts college nestled just so in some of the loveliest nooks of the Hudson Valley (pictured above)—has long been playground to the progeny of affluent, left-leaning, creative New York City types. Last summer Bard received a $500 million endowment from George Soros, and apparently the only way the college can reach its goal of joining the $1 billion endowment club is by cutting [checks notes] the massive expenditure of a biannual literary journal.
There’s no word yet if Conjunctions will try to carry on without Bard’s help, but in the wake of losing publications like The Believer and Tin House in the last few years, the willful and capricious disinvestment from literary culture by the very rich seems to be picking up speed. Oligarchs, right?
(We’ve had the privilege of co-publishing work from Conjunctions over the years, which you can read here.)