The Finals are Set: Battle of the Reviews!

categories: Cocktail Hour

146 comments


The Finals are set: The Georgia Review vs. The Paris Review The voting has been extended to midnight Monday April9th.   Please vote for the finals in the comments section on this page.  You don’t have to be as witty as last time.  (We expect a much lower scoring game.)

Our scoring system is simple.  Each vote equals 2 points.  No 3-pointers.

Semis recaps: 

Despite Ecotone’s overwhelming homecourt advantage, the Georgia Review proved unstoppable.  After making it a game with a late rally, Ecotone’s Cinderella season came to an end, buried under a barrage of Georgia threes.

In the other bracket, The Paris Review steamrolled into the finals.  There is some arrogance in tradition (many voters, for instance, put the word “duh” after their votes for TPR), but in this case the arrogance was well-founded.  A classic performance that hints at a continued dynasty.

For lovers of the Paris Review (and as we have discovered, they are legion), we have a special treat planned for later next week.  It turns out that the staff archivist here at Bill and Dave’s has unearthed some rare footage of the time, previously known only through myth and rumor, when Paris Review Founding editor George Plimpton played Ecotone Founding Editor David Gessner in a game of one-on-one.  Say tuned!

Also, please read Bill’s Memories of the Sweet Sixteen.…such a close call for Tin House….

* * *

Finally, in fairness to the Oxford American, which is one of my favorite mags, both TGR and TPR rallied their fans on blogs.

In their post, The Paris Review wrote:

Dear readers,

This is a matter of honor. If you love and believe in The Paris Review, now is the time to show what our fans are made of. We are currently in the Final Four of the Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour Tournament of Literary Magazines.

Meanwhile in the AthensPatch, Rebecca McCarthy wrote:

Listen up, Bulldog Nation:

Turns out the University of Georgia does have a contender in the Final Four after all.

The Final Four of Literary Magazines.

Yep, under the boards, the Georgia Review has ruled, bruising and battering opponents right and left. If you’ve ever seen editor Stephen Corey crush a treadmill at the Athens YMCA, you’ve seen raw power.

The Final Four is held by Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour, an online site about all things literary, large and small. You have to comment on why the Georgia Review rocks in order to have your vote count.

So, you might ask, who is the Review facing?

A puny weakling. A nothing, we hope. Who is it? North Carolina-based Ecotones, unfortunately rumored to have a staff member who can pump in the commas as fast as Jeremy Lin can hit three-pointers.

The other contenders are The Paris Review and another Southern literary magazine, the risen-from-the-grave Oxford American.

Don’t worry. The Review can handle them.

Go, Dawgs!



  1. Doug writes:

    The Paris Review.

  2. Jane writes:

    Paris Review!

  3. Kelly Simmons writes:

    Georgia Review!!

  4. Rachel Watkins writes:

    Georgia Review — helloooo!!

  5. Liana writes:

    Georgia Review in the 21st century!

  6. KS Howard writes:

    Georgia Review, of course!

  7. Daniel writes:
  8. Nancy writes:

    Georgia Review!

  9. Del writes:

    Georgia Review all the way!

  10. Carmen writes:

    The Georgia Review!

  11. Barry Hollander writes:

    It’s on my mind … The Georgia Review!

  12. Pamela writes:

    The Paris Review.

  13. Cheri Wranosky writes:

    The Georgia Review!

  14. Sohayl M. writes:

    Georgia Review

  15. Amy writes:

    Georgia Review!

  16. Kathy writes:

    Georgia Review all the way!

  17. Renna writes:

    Let’s go, Georgia Review!

  18. Donnie Summerlin writes:

    Georgia Review suckas!

  19. Elizabeth writes:

    Georgia Review!!

  20. Kelly Cherry writes:

    Georgia.
    But where do we vote?

  21. Richard writes:

    The Georgia Review

  22. Kelly Cherry writes:

    Georgia. But where do we vote?

  23. Jo-Ann Burton writes:

    The Paris Review

  24. The Georgia Review

  25. Leslie Lamb writes:

    “The Georgia Review”

  26. Nina writes:

    Georgia Review!

    • Jacob White writes:

      The Georgia Review! Stephen Corey for president! The pages even smell of red-clay roots. As does all that earthy, strange, delta-rich writing — I mean, Harry Crews, Ann Pancake, Lee K. Abbott? Come on! The first literary journal I owned was a 1996 GR with both an essay and story in it by Will Baker, one of which was about a boy living underground for a summer in a kind of bunker. I will remember it forever. So I dare somebody to, like, BRING it!

      • Jacob White writes:

        The issue was not 1996. It was 1989. But what does it matter? — GR is above years and maunders about in some stranger swampy shadowy time . . .

  27. Denise Horton writes:

    The Georgia Review rocks!

  28. Hadley writes:

    Georgia Review. Always. I wanted Ecotone to win, but…

  29. Christine Doster writes:

    The Georgia Review!!

  30. Beth writes:

    Georgia Review rules!

  31. Christine writes:

    The Georgia Review!

  32. Christine A. Packwood writes:

    The Georgia Review is the peachiest! I am nuts (pecans of course) about it.

  33. Lee Ann Pingel writes:

    Sarah Gordon doesn’t publish just anywhere, after all!

  34. Michael Mejia writes:

    The Georgia Review FTW!

  35. Lynette writes:

    The Georgia Review

  36. Ruta Abolins writes:

    The Georgia Review

  37. Raven writes:
  38. Just Believe writes:

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  39. Nick writes:

    The Paris Review. Why? Part of it – the Interviews. Need I say more?

  40. Chris writes:

    Georgia Review.

  41. Margaret Benbow writes:

    The Georgia Review!

  42. steve writes:

    um, how do you vote?

    • Jerry writes:

      Steve, Just put the name of the review in the comments section. The Georgia Review all the way.

  43. Jim Powell writes:

    Georgia (Review) always on my mind!

  44. Gabe Welsch writes:

    GEORGIA REVIEW.

  45. Mindy writes:

    Good game, Ecotone! You made us work for it. Sorry to break the glass slipper.

  46. Dymi writes:
  47. Stacey writes:

    Paris Review!

  48. Kari writes:

    The Paris Review!

  49. Dave writes:

    I’ll cast the first vote. I’m going Georgia…..

  50. Norman Hills writes:

    The Paris Review – of course!