In memory of Peter Stine, founding editor of Witness
What does “Witness” mean? In this letter, we want to celebrate the legacy of our founding editor, Peter Stine, who passed away in August 2023 at age 81.
In 1987, writer Peter Stine was approached by Dr. Sidney Lutz, a philanthropic businessman in Detroit, asking if he would be interested in starting an “intellectual journal.” Despite the personal financial stress and the unpredictability of the literary market, Stine said yes, and devoted himself to building a magazine that would soon become one of the most highly regarded literary journals in the country.
A magazine’s vision is often a reflection of the editor’s own values and ambition. Stine was a visionary editor, a prolific writer, and a dedicated educator. While earning his doctorate in literature at UC Berkeley, he proudly participated in the Free Speech and anti-war movements, worked for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, taught at South Carolina State University, a Historically Black University, and led writing classes at San Quentin and Jackson state prisons.
At Witness, Stine published two issues annually, one devoted to a single topic, the other being a more general offering, a tradition we continue to carry out today. Several themed issues, including “New Nature Writing,” “The Sixties,” “Sports in America,” and “The Best of Witness, 1987 – 2004,” were later published in book form by university presses. In his Editor’s Comment for the 1987-2004 Witness anthology, Stine shared his thoughts behind the magazine’s name:
“I have tried to present our readers with writings that might illuminate those issues of conscience that have defined our historical moment. Whether turning to the Holocaust, Vietnam, civil rights, private victimization, political oppression, the natural world, sports, cities, rural America, work, religion, crime, American families, love, aging, or ethnic America, Witness has featured, free of ideology, the essence of bearing literary witness.”
Stine achieved his goal of building a reputable magazine that affected the literary landscape, and his work at Witness was recognized and celebrated widely. “Peter was far ahead of his time with his passionate focus on social justice,” says Jane McCafferty, a writer and friend. “He had his eye on class, race, gender, and the environment long before it was fashionable. He also had a deep appreciation for the hard-won emotional truths that fueled not only the countless writers he so generously championed, but also what he himself created as a writer.” In a 2001 letter of support, the National Endowment for the Arts praised Witness as “publishing the literary work which will define for future generations the contours of life in America in the early portion of the 21st century.”
Stine’s own writing appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including The Iowa Review, The Threepenny Review, The New York Times, and more. His book The Art of Survival: Essays on Isaac Babel, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, and Joseph Conrad was published in 2011, and a collection of his short fiction, Bodies on the Line, appeared in 2019.
Several years after its birth, Witness found an academic home at Oakland Community College. When Peter retired in 2007, Witness moved to the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where it continues to thrive.
Stine’s vision and mission have uplifted countless writers, and we at Witness will carry his mission forward, just as our name suggests: to know, to see, to write, to care, and to remember.
– Xueyi Zhou
Other references:
Peter Stine Public Obituary
The Observer & Eccentric, Sept 27, 1998