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PARTISAN REVIEW
Sewanee, Kenyon, Poetry, Hudson-had
started their own loose orga–
nization, the Council of Literary Magazines (CLM) . By
1965
it looked
as if ALMA were finished, although it staggered on for two more years
while I was president. Then the situation changed dramatically. William
Phillips played a decisive and creative role in the next phase of propping
up and supporting this important part of the literary life of America.
When the National Endowment for Arts and Humanities was estab–
lished in
1965,
Roger Stevens called on William Phillips to set up a
branch for literature, and, in a bold and unprecedented step, he
appointed the poet Carolyn Kizer Director of Literary Programs. The
idea was to seize the moment to try to get some money into the hands
of writers by channeling some federal money to literary journals and
magazines. Carolyn Kizer called a meeting of the leadership of CLM,
namely William Phillips, aided by his managing editor, Carolyn Rand
Herron; ALMA (me); and Reed Whittemore, who was by then the chair–
man of a nonprofit, nongovernmental cultural improvement agency in
Washington, D.C. We met in a restaurant in Chelsea, and Carolyn Kizer
suggested we write a grant proposal to NEA. Of course, we did, and in
order to more effectively represent the broader community, we agreed to
merge our two organizations. Thus Coordinating Council of Literary
Magazines (CCLM) was born. That was to remain its name until
1990,
when it was further broadened to become the Council of Literary Mag–
azines and Presses. The officers of the first CCLM were William Phillips,
President; Jules Chametzky, Secretary; and Reed Whittemore, Vice-Pres–
ident and convener of our early meetings in Washington.
Needless to say, there was not a whole lot of money to spread
around. The three of us had to decide upon the ,small grants we were
able to make. This was not the most desirable way to run the thing, even
though we doled out our pittances fairly to dozens among the hundreds
of magazines that began to apply for money when word got out. Led by
William, we decided first of all to get out of Washington and run the
headquarters from New York, and then to enlarge the Board to be more
representative of the larger community.
This was accomplished, not without some struggle with the Washington
agency that had given us office space. (William describes all of this in more
detail in his
1983
memoir
A Partisan View.)
The enlarged Board included
people like Russell Banks, then editing his own magazine; Charles New–
man of
TriQuarterly
out of Chicago; people from the West Coast
(Kayak);
and, at a later point, an adjunct board of three African-American writers
and editors who were to decide upon grants for African-American jour–
nals. Not a bad spread. We had lively meetings and good times.
