History

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Rob Greene launched what is now known as Raleigh Review in his Raleigh home on February 21, 2010, while completing his MFA in poetry from North Carolina State University. Many others joined Greene on Raleigh Review at a crucial time the following month in March of 2010 including his mentors and teachers Joseph Millar and Dorianne Laux as well as those from his MFA cohort including Will Badger and Smriti Ravindra. Since that time, Raleigh Review has evolved into a nonprofit organization that publishes an award-winning literary magazine and offers literary programs to a broad audience. For more details on our history view the interviews at Sapling and The Review Review as well as the highlights.

Highlights:

• 2010 – Robert Ian Greene launched the magazine as RIG Poetry on Feb. 21st, 2010. When Will Badger and Smriti Ravindra brought flash fiction to the magazine in March 2010, Rob changed the name to Raleigh Review. Raleigh Review incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on May 21, 2010. Raleigh Review published its first print issue in December 2010. 
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• 2011 – Volume 1 receives 2010 Best of the Net recognition (one fiction winner, three poetry finalists). Raleigh Review offers its first workshop with award-winning poets Joseph Millar and Dorianne Laux. Raleigh Review receives its first United Arts Council grant.
  

• 2012 – Volume 2 receives Best of the Net recognition (poetry finalist). Raleigh Review's NC Poetry on the Bus program places writing by NC poets on bus placards on the Raleigh R‑Line. Millar and Laux teach another poetry workshop. Four readings are held by Laux, Millar, and other noted writers, such as Al Maginnes and John Balaban.
  

• 2013 – Raleigh Review again offers NC Poetry on the Bus during National Poetry Month. Raleigh Review receives a Gold Summit Creative Award for cover design of Volumes 2 and 3. Five writing workshops are held with instructors such as Marie Howe (State Poet for New York) and Elaine Orr (noted memoirist). Six readings are presented, including NC Poets Laureate Joseph Bathanti and Kathryn Stripling Byer, and Betty Adcock, winner of the NC Medal for Literature. Unspoken Word Open Mic events are introduced.
  

• 2014 – Raleigh Review moves to a biannual publication schedule. NC Poetry on the Bus again places poetry on
  the R-Line.
  

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• ​2015 – Raleigh Review receives grants from United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County, City of Raleigh Arts Commission, NC Arts Council, and Caktus Group to support the Southern Recitation Series that presented writers such as Randall Kenan in 2014 and Malena Mörling in 2015, among others. NC Poetry on the Bus again places poetry on the R-Line for a fourth year.
  

• 2016 – Raleigh Review Vol. 6, No. 1 and Raleigh Review Vol. 6, No. 2 poems from Matthew Olzmann's "Day Zero" and Lana I. Ghannam's "There is a stillness after you" received placement in the spiritual anthology from Orison Books. Raleigh Review assists in the launch of Lou Lit Review, the international literary journal in the Humanities Division at Louisburg College. 
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• 2017 – Raleigh Review launches the Laux/Millar RR Poetry Prize in the middle of its Volume 7 biannual publication cycle. Vol. 7.1 and Vol. 7.2 are released on-time. Vol. 7.1 is reviewed in both The Review Review and in Newpages. Raleigh Review Editors are interviewed in The Review Review.

• 2018 – A Raleigh Review poem from RR vol. 6.1 ("Blood Sausage" by Lindsay Wilson) receives a special mention in the 2018 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Also, "Kything" by Traci Brimhall was originally published in RR 7.1 (2017) and was then selected for the 2018 Orison Anthology. Volume 8.1 and Volume 8.2 are released on-time. Raleigh Review led the launch of Lou Lit Review  at Louisburg College as they released their first volume.
  

• ​2019 –  The short story, "The Good Confession” by A. Muia originally published in Raleigh Review 8.2 was selected for the Orison Anthology 2019. Raleigh Review was selected as a CLMP Firecracker Finalist in June. RR began hosting a flash fiction prize in the autumn and continued to host the Laux/Millar poetry prize in the spring.
  

• 2020 – Raleigh Review celebrated its 10-year anniversary on the exact anniversary date of February 21, 2020. The event was hosted by Quail Ridge Books as part of the 2020 NC Book Festival. Readers/presenters included our team members Leila Chatti, Tyree Daye, Bryce Emley, Landon Houle, Rob Greene, Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar. The event was emceed by Heather Bell Adams.
  

• 2021 – Raleigh Review was selected as a finalist for the 2021 CLMP Firecracker Awards in the general magazine excellence category.
  

• 2022 – Rob Greene served as a judge for the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Awards for magazines. Greene also delivered the news on the future programs via the presentation titled The English Department Revival at the 2022 HBCU Technology Conference. Raleigh Review relaunched its Writers' Studio with workshops from Tyree Daye (Feb 2022), Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar (May 2022).

• 2023 – Raleigh Review now has their Geri Digiorno Prize open for multi-genre submissions every odd year and their Laux Millar Prize is open every even year. The Flash Fiction Prize is currently every year. Raleigh Review  continues to open to general submissions for the biannual for poetry and short fiction. The fee free submissions period for poetry continues to open every December. Raleigh Review also relaunched their In-Person Writers' Studio Workshop Series with the next event in April of 2025.

• 2024 – Raleigh Review  continues to pay its contributors for original selections published in the magazine, and RR continues to support Saint Augustine's Magazine by rebranding the magazine to hold the SAM archive at The Fool's World, a new subsidiary of Raleigh Review. Our editor Landon Houle was interviewed for Lit Mag News on 15 Feb 2024. In early 2024, Raleigh Review made a call to the literary magazine and press community to request more transparency concerning solicitation statistics, and these statistics are now being captured by Chill Subs, among others.

• 2025 – Raleigh Review led the launch of The Fool's World as they released their first issue in April of 2025. Zine Alive Archive, a repository option for those magazines that cease publishing is now live at the TFW site, both The Fool's World and Zine Alive Archive are sponsored by Raleigh Review. In 2024 and 2025, Raleigh Review expanded its free submission opportunities for those experiencing a financial hardship. In addition to the free two week poetry window during the holiday season in December, Raleigh Review is open to free (and tip jar option) submissions every odd numbered year in November-December for the first two months of the Digiorno Prize, and the magazine is also open to free submissions for the first two months every even numbered year for the Laux & Millar Raleigh Review Book Prize. Additionally the Flash Fiction prize is open every year during the month of June to fee free (tip jar submissions). Raleigh Review released the fifteenth anniversary issue on time in April of 2025.