UPDATE [August 13, 2010]:
Virginia Quarterly Review staff returned to the office of UVA’s prized literary journal on Tuesday, August 10—almost two weeks after the suicide of managing editor Kevin Morrissey had temporarily suspended the journal’s operations. Morrissey, who was 52 and described as having stuggled with depression throughout his life, shot himself on July 30.
“If Kevin had been a normal managing editor, we’d be in a tight spot. But Kevin was not a normal managing editor,” wrote VQR web editor Waldo Jaquith on the journal’s website following the staff’s return. “The result of Kevin’s careful planning is that we are, somehow, ahead of schedule for the fall issue.” Jaquith has given his notice, and this will be his last issue of VQR.
While staff resumed copyediting and design revisions, VQR editor Ted Genoways, who is at the center of allegations of “workplace bullying,” worked in a separate office at the university, according to his lawyer, Lloyd Snook.
“He’s not leaving them in the lurch,” said Snook, who also confirmed that Genoways has retained him for advice on his interactions with the university, including matters concerning his employment contract. “It’s important to him that the to-do list that he’s been working on to get the last issue to bed, that he continue to do that,” Snook said. Genoways is working on “last-minute details” for the issue, and his employment status with the university has not changed, according to his lawyer.
Unclear is whether Genoways will remain editor of the journal he brought to national stature once the current deadlines are met. The press date for the next issue of VQR is August 26. Since Morrissey’s death, the locks were changed at the VQR office.
There has also been talk of increased police presence near the VQR office since the start of last week. Questions on that matter were forwarded to Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Carol Wood, whose office, by August 6, had started supervising the VQR staff. This new reporting arrangement puts the magazine in the position of answering to the person who controls UVA’s public comments during what is emerging as a human resources/personnel mess.
While Wood said University police “are assigned regular patrols along McCormick Road,” she told C-VILLE via e-mail that “a computer was recently stolen from VQR—taken when a perpetrator smashed in one of the front windows of the office.” She did not specify the date of that incident other than to say it was several weeks ago.
Genoways has been on leave from VQR since June to work on a Walt Whitman project for which he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. Still, he has been identified as a “workplace bully” by members of Morrissey’s family, who further allege that Morrissey reached out to the Office of the President for assistance with unmanageable workplace relations (VQR has long been part of the Office of the President). Wood confirmed that Morrissey “was in close contact with HR” before his death, but could not comment on confidential personnel matters other than to say that “all VQR staff members had been working with human resources professionals to address issues within the VQR office.”
Another source close to VQR, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal, confirmed that some staff reached out to higher-ups at UVA to inform them of workplace strain. Genoways has not responded to these charges on the record, though in a personal e-mail he sent to colleagues outside VQR that was obtained by C-VILLE, he acknowledged an “unfortunate rift” between him and Morrissey that he said came to permeate staff relations generally. A call to Alan Cohn, director of UVA’s Faculty & Staff Employee Relations, was not immediately returned.
Snook said he has received no formal notice from the university concerning investigations of his client, and he is not aware of any face-to-face meetings between Genoways and members of the VQR staff.
Snook said things for his client are currently “on hold.”
“And frankly, having it on hold like this—where he’s being attacked in ways that he can’t even defend himself—is extremely frustrating. And one of the reasons he can’t defend himself is to do so would require breaking the confidentiality that the university expects out of the personnel process.”
Asked about his client’s current state, Snook said Genoways is “deeply saddened by Kevin’s death.” The two had been colleagues dating to their work together at the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2000.
“Ted didn’t cause [Morrissey’s] depression, it was a pre-existing condition,” said Snook, who added that Morrissey had attended Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners at Genoways’ home. “It bothered Ted and Ted’s family.” Genoways is “extremely distressed over the suicide of someone who had been a close friend of his for many years.”.”
Published August 10, 2010:
On July 30, Kevin Morrissey called the police to report a shooting near the coal tower on Water Street. Authorities responded to find that Morrissey, managing editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review for six years, a brilliant 52-year-old publishing professional, unmarried, meticulous in both his work and appearance, had taken his own life. [Editor’s note: A colleague of Morrissey wrote online that the managing editor struggled with depression for much of his life.]
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 By multiple accounts, relationships between VQR editor Ted Genoways (pictured) and other staff members were strained during the months before the suicide of managing editor Kevin Morrissey.
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While Morrissey’s suicide is clearly a tragedy in itself, it also marks a crescendo in a trying time for VQR, UVA’s industry-leading literary journal. According to comments from individuals close to VQR, working relationships between Genoways and other full-time VQR staff members were fractious during the months that led up to Morrissey’s suicide.
Now, several sources—who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal—tell C-VILLE that VQR editor Ted Genoways will not be involved in efforts to finalize the upcoming issue of the journal.
“I know that he is not coming back to the office except to get his personal things,” says Maria Morrissey, Kevin’s sister. “He was told not to come to the memorial. He was told not to contact any of the staff. I don’t know if he was fired, if he was asked for his resignation, if he was transferred.” Sources also tell C-VILLE that locks on the doors of the VQR office were recently changed.
Both Genoways and several VQR staff members declined to comment on the current organization of the National Magazine Award-winning journal. Sources tell C-VILLE that VQR’s three full-time editorial staff members—web editor Waldo Jaquith, associate editor Sheila McMillen and associate editor Molly Minturn—will finish the issue.
“We have issues to get out,” says Jaquith. “Even without Kevin around, someone’s got to do it.”
VQR staff was expected to meet with University officials on Monday, August 9, at 3pm. According to UVA spokesperson Carol Wood, the journal’s staff will report to UVA’s public affairs office while Genoways is on a “leave of absence,” she says, as part of his $35,000 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is working on a project about Walt Whitman and the Civil War. Wood says the next issue of VQR is nearly complete, and will be dedicated to Morrissey.
During a memorial service held for Morrissey at UVA’s Newcomb Hall on Friday, August 6, McMillen said members of the full-time staff—Morrissey, Jaquith, Minturn and herself—“all complemented each other. We worked well together.”
Genoways was not named during the memorial, nor did he attend. Asked about his absence from Morrissey’s memorial service, his current employment status with the Virginia Quarterly Review and relationships among staff members, Genoways responded that he had no comments at this time.
Maria Morrissey tells C-VILLE that her brother spoke with UVA’s Human Resources office and the Office of the President during the weeks prior to his death. Additional sources claim that members of the VQR staff contacted the Office of the President to express their concerns over working relationships among VQR staff members.
In a comment on local website cvillenews.com made prior to the memorial, Morrissey’s sister drew a connection between her brother’s suicide and what she called a “workplace bully.” Following the memorial, a second post attributed to Maria Morrissey turned again to “destructive consequences of unchecked workplace bullying…in hopes that Ted Genoways might read it and rethink his management style.”
C-VILLE received a copy of a letter that Genoways confirms he sent to friends. In it, he asks for assistance finalizing the upcoming issue of VQR. The letter refers to an “unfortunate rift” in the VQR office between Genoways and staff, and mentions allegations of “workplace bullying” from the Morrissey family.
“I feel unspeakably saddened by Kevin’s death,” writes Genoways in the letter, “but I do not feel responsible.”—With additional reporting by Andrew Cedermark
