The magazine's stated goal is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book reviews for a non-academic audience.

[3] House was succeeded as editor by the German critic and novelist Ernst Erich Noth, who went on to edit the journal for ten years.

During his tenure, Noth narrowed the scope of the publication to writers of the 20th century and focused on reviewing only books that had been published no more than two years earlier.

[citation needed] Viennese scholar Wolfgang Bernard Fleischmann directed WLT for about two years beginning in 1959.

In 1961, Fleischmann was succeeded by Czech émigré Robert Vlach, a professor of modern languages at the University of Oklahoma.

The award went to Thomas Mann, who won the Nobel Prize in 1929 and was a frequent contributor to World Literature Today.