For over 40 years, Magill’s Literary Annual, published by Salem Press, consistently and exclusively covers recent works of fiction and nonfiction across subjects, genres, and countries. Each year, Magill’s Literary Annual critically evaluates 150 major examples of serious literature, both fiction and nonfiction, published during the previous calendar year.

Selection

The philosophy behind our selection process is to cover works that are likely to be of interest to general readers, that represent the major literary genres, that reflect publishing trends, that are written by authors being taught in literature programs, and that will stand the test of time. By filtering the thousands of books published every year down to 150 notable titles, the editors have provided the busy librarian with an excellent reader’s advisory tool and patrons with fodder for book discussion groups and a guide for choosing worthwhile reading material.

Organization & Format

The reviews in the two-volume Magill’s Literary Annual are arranged alphabetically by title. At the beginning of both volumes is a complete alphabetical list, by category, of all covered books that provides readers with the title, author, and a brief description of each work.

The Essay-Reviews

Every essay-review is approximately four pages in length. The text of each independently-written review analyzes and presents the focus, intent, and relative success of the author, as well as the makeup and point of view of the work under discussion. The essay-reviews in the Annual provide a more academic, “authoritative” review of a work than is typically found in newspapers and other ephemeral sources.

Each review begins with a block of reference information in a standard order:

•Author
•First Published
•Publisher
•Type of work
•Time: Period represented
•Locale
•Capsule description of work
•Principal characters or Principal personages

To assist the reader further, essays are supplemented by a list of additional “Review Sources” for further study in a bibliographic format. Every essay includes a sidebar offering a brief biography of the author or authors. Thumbnail photographs of the book covers and the authors are included as available. Plus, two indexes can be found at the end of volume II, a Category Index and an Author Index.

BUY THE CURRENT EDITION & GET FREE ONLINE ACCESS TO THE ARCHIVES FREE

That’s 47 Years of Magill’s Literary Annual for the Price of One!

When you purchase the current Magill’s Literary Annual, we provide access to 47 years of past Annuals. We even provide Cumulative Author and Title Indexes online for easier access to content. That’s over 9,050 reviews and essays on over four decades of the most important works of fiction and nonfiction. To make this vast collection available to your students and patrons you need only purchase the latest edition.

Fiction Core Collection	Book Review Digest	Short Story Index	Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction	World Authors