Paul Reyes is the editor of the award-winning Virginia Quarterly Review, pound-for-pound one of the most dynamic literary magazines in the country. As editor he develops a variety of content, including investigative reporting, essays, photography portfolios, poetry, criticism, and fiction. He’s led the magazine to nine nominations for the National Magazine Award, winning twice—for General Excellence in 2019 and Best Illustrated Story in 2023. He’s also led VQR to two Overseas Press Club awards, as well as several inclusions in the Best American anthologies and Pushcart Prize anthology.

Prior to joining VQR, he was an editor with the Oxford American, where his essays and reporting appeared regularly. His writing has also appeared in VQR, Harper’s, the New York Times, Literary Hub, Mother Jones, Details, and the Mississippi Review. His work has earned him a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a nomination for the Harry Chapin Media Award, and a nomination for the National Magazine Award in Feature Writing.

He has served on several prestigious prize juries in literature and photography, and has served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Magazine Editors. He is currently on the Board of Directors for MacDowell. He lectures on the art and business of magazine journalism and the creative-writing process, and has given talks on everything from housing policy to generational legacy in language and food.

His book, Exiles in Eden, is an investigative narrative of the 2008 housing crisis, praised as “a wrenching chronicle of our new hard times” (Publishers Weekly) and “an engrossing memoir of American dreaming and financial devastation” (Mother Jones). 

Aside from manuscripts, he’s currently reading America, América by Greg Grandin.