For almost 50 years, North Dakota Quarterly published work by and about the poet Thomas McGrath. Now NDQ plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, November 20, 2016, with an issue devoted to him and his work. This call for papers seeks previously unpublished material about McGrath as well as writings that reflect his spirit.

McGrath was celebrated worldwide and some critics have compared him to Walt Whitman in his scope and language. McGrath is perhaps best known for his long prose poem, Letter to An Imaginary Friend. His novel, This Coffin has No Handles, was published by NDQ in 1984. Go here for a links to some of McGrath’s work in North Dakota Quarterly and a festschrift published by the journal in 1982.

McGrath was born on a farm near Sheldon, North Dakota. He earned a BA from the University of North Dakota, and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. Also a political activist, McGrath was dismissed from a college teaching post at Los Angeles State College after refusing to cooperate with Senator McCarthy’s witchhunts. He founded a literary journal, Crazyhorse (now published at the College of Charleston in South Carolina), and later taught at North Dakota State University and Minnesota State University, Moorhead. He died in Minneapolis in 1990.

North Dakota Quarterly is a peer-reviewed, public-humanities journal published since 1911 at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. We welcome submissions of unpublished work for the Thomas McGrath issue at:

The Editor
North Dakota Quarterly
Merrifield Hall Room 110
276 Centennial Hall—Stop 7209
Grand Forks ND 58202-7209

Submission deadline is September 1.