The Southern Review editor Jeanne Leiby has passed away. She was 46-years-old.
An HTMLGIANT tribute explained that Leiby (pictured, via) was known for her care and kindness towards her fellow writers at Louisiana State University’s literary journal. Her personal essay, “Why I Call,” talked about the joy she took in collaboration at The Southern Review.
Author Alex V. Cook offered this this tribute: “I came to realize that Jeanne was quick … to throw a match at every potential fuse with hopes that something would spark up. None of the things she asked of me came to fruition, for myriad reasons, but none of that mattered, for the idea of them existed indelibly in the world, and that, if nothing else, is what a writer, what a reader, what an editor, what an idea woman does. Those ideas still hang in the air, reverberating with her nervous zeal; she was a transplanted Michiganite and her step-to-it Midwesternness offered a much needed counterpoint to the narcissistic Southern malaise. Jeanne would call people to tell them a piece was accepted. I thought that was classy as hell.”