The Ontario Review, Inc. was founded in 1974 by Raymond J. Smith and Joyce Carol Oates in Windsor, Ontario, where both were teaching at the University of Windsor. The first issue of Ontario Review appeared in Fall 1974. The first books under that imprint were not to appear until Fall 1980, after the editors had moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Oates had been asked to join the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University; Smith left a 20-year teaching career to concentrate full time on publishing.