Style Weekly
VQR Cancels Issue, Writers Defend Editor
While University of Virginia officials embark on an investigation of its Virginia Quarterly Review in the wake of an editor's suicide and allegations of workplace bullying, the university has announced that it's canceling the award-winning magazine's winter issue.
The offices of VQR, as the magazine is known, will be shuttered until internal financial and managerial audits are completed, university spokeswoman Carol Wood told The New York Times last week.
Incoming President Teresa A. Sullivan requested the inquiries following the late July suicide of Kevin Morrissey, the magazine's managing editor. Ted Genoways, its editor, has been accused by Maria Morrissey, the sister of the dead man, of bullying her brother during office interactions; he later shot himself
“The staff has been through a lot, and they needed to step away and take some time,” Wood told the Times. “We thought it might be best for all involved on the staff to take a break and step back and wait for the conclusion of the internal review.”
The cancellation came on the heels of three staff members taking their names off the magazine's masthead, the departure of the publication's Web editor and freelance contributors defending Genoways.
In a letter to Charlottesville's alternative C-Ville Weekly, 30 free-lancers called for an impartial university investigation.
The letter says, in part:
“In our many dealings with Ted Genoways, we have found him to be professional, tactful and respectful. … We find it deeply disturbing that the journalistic standards to which we and VQR are committed have not been applied in coverage of these tragic events.”
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