The Mailer Review

The Mailer Review is the annual scholarly journal of the Norman Mailer Society. Phillip Sipiora founded it in 2006 and edited fifteen volumes, from 2007 to 2021. I worked on the journal from its first issue as associate and media editor, joined its editorial board in 2021, and became its editor in 2026. The journal is online at mailerreview.org .

The Back Run, Online

For most of its life the Review was a print journal. A handful of articles were remediated by hand on Project Mailer, but most of the run could be read only in the printed volumes. In 2026 we moved the whole journal onto Open Journal Systems, the open-source platform used by scholarly journals worldwide, and published every back volume there.

The first fifteen volumes are 732 pieces by nearly three hundred contributors: essays and interviews, unpublished Mailer stories transcribed from the Harry Ransom Center manuscripts, reviews, tributes, poems and fiction, and the annual Mailer bibliography. Each appears as it was printed, as a PDF from the original volume. Each also carries its own record, with title and byline as printed, an abstract, keywords, the author’s contributor note, and an affiliation, so the run can be searched, browsed, and cited article by article. Every back volume is free to read.

My graduate editorial assistant, Josie Hadaway, entered the first eight volumes article by article in the spring of 2026. Her work set the standard for the rest. I imported Volumes 9 through 15 in October and then audited the whole run against the printed volumes. That meant correcting bylines and titles, writing the missing abstracts, crediting translators as co-authors, and re-cutting the scanned galleys so their text is searchable. The Review’s old pages on Project Mailer now redirect to their articles on the new site.

Volume 16

Volume 16, Special Edition: 20 Years of the Review, is a festschrift for Phillip Sipiora, co-edited with Matthew S. Hinton. It reprints fifteen pieces from the journal’s first two decades with an introduction, “The Site of Memory.” It is the first volume published as a born-digital edition, in PDF, in reading-friendly HTML, and as an EPUB. It will be published on November 4, 2026, the opening day of the Society’s conference.

Access

Each new volume goes to Society members on publication and becomes free for everyone one year later. Libraries can subscribe by IP range. Joining or renewing a Society membership now sets up journal access automatically. The journal is applying for Crossref DOIs, beginning with Volume 16, so every article will have a permanent identifier.

Construction Role

I designed and built the journal’s site and publishing pipeline. That work included the OJS installation and theme, import and metadata tools, the conversion from Markdown to HTML and EPUB for new issues, and the link between Society membership and journal subscriptions. I also edit the journal, set its editorial policies, and supervise the graduate editorial assistantship that supports it.