AGNI (magazine)
Encyclopedia
AGNI is an American
literary magazine
that publishes poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and artwork twice a year in print and biweekly online from its home at Boston University
. Its editor is Sven Birkerts
, the literary critic and essayist, and its senior editor is William Pierce.
by former undergraduate Askold Melnyczuk. After a brief residency in Western Massachusetts, AGNI relocated to BU in 1987, and later moved into the former offices of The Partisan Review on 236 Bay State Road. Melnyczuk edited AGNI until July 2002, at which time Sven Birkerts
assumed the editorship. The magazine receives support from the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences
’ graduate program in Creative Writing. In addition, AGNI relies on funding from the National Endowment for the Arts
, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and individual donors.
AGNI publishes two 240-page print issues annually. Each issue includes thirty to forty contributors, with a minimum print run of 3,000. AGNI has subscribers across the United States and in several other countries, is carried by university and public libraries, and is distributed to independent and chain bookstores within the United States. AGNI Online, an electronic extension of the print magazine, features biweekly postings of new Web-only fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews. Both print and online issues include work from multiple languages. Translations from Urdu, Dutch, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Chinese, Turkish, Hebrew, Italian, Slovenian, Polish, French and Latvian have appeared in AGNI.
According to the magazine’s website, “Literature for literature’s sake is not what AGNI is about. Rather, we see literature and the arts as part of a broad, ongoing cultural conversation that every society needs to remain vibrant and alive.”
The magazine’s name comes from Agni
, the Vedic god of fire and guardian of mankind. AGNI’s symbol, the flying monkey, was originally conceived of by Erin Belieu
, AGNI's managing editor at the time of the magazine's redesign beginning with AGNI 40, and AGNI interns Richard Curtis and John Mulligan. It has remained since to represent the magazine.
"...[AGNI] has become a beacon of international literary culture, shining into even the darkest corners of its hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Among readers around the world, AGNI is known for publishing important new writers early in their careers, many of them translated into English for the first time."
AGNI contributors’ work has appeared over the years in The Pushcart Prize anthologies, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best New Poets, Harper's, The O. Henry
Prize Stories, Best of the Web, Poetry Daily, and has been named in the top ten for the storySouth Million Writers Award for five years, among other honors and publications.
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney
has said of AGNI: “The auguries couldn’t be better for now and times to come: this is a cracker of a magazine, a reader’s delight, a standard achieved, a balance held between service to new writers and fidelity to what’s what in writing itself.”
Many prominent writers debuted work of note in AGNI, including Jhumpa Lahiri
, Ha Jin
, Mark Doty
, Susanna Kaysen
, Glyn Maxwell
, Sven Birkerts, Olena Kalytiak Davis
, Seamus Heaney
, Joyce Carol Oates
, Derek Walcott
, Russell Banks
, Brock Clarke and Jacob M. Appel
.
Contributors to AGNI’s spring 2009 issue--AGNI 69--can be found indexed in AGNI Online.
area and in New York City
. Recent events have included "Eurospectives," a reading series in cosponsorship with BU's Institute for Human Sciences that featured writers Ilan Stavans
and Bernhard Schlink
; the "Commonwealth Reading Series" with the Massachusetts Cultural Council; and biannual launches of AGNI's new print editions, held typically on BU's campus.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
that publishes poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and artwork twice a year in print and biweekly online from its home at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
. Its editor is Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts is an American essayist and literary critic of Latvian ancestry. He is best known for his book The Gutenberg Elegies, which posits a decline in reading due to the overwhelming advances of the Internet and other technologies of the "electronic culture."Birkerts was born in Pontiac,...
, the literary critic and essayist, and its senior editor is William Pierce.
History and background
AGNI was founded in 1972 at Antioch CollegeAntioch College
Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and...
by former undergraduate Askold Melnyczuk. After a brief residency in Western Massachusetts, AGNI relocated to BU in 1987, and later moved into the former offices of The Partisan Review on 236 Bay State Road. Melnyczuk edited AGNI until July 2002, at which time Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts is an American essayist and literary critic of Latvian ancestry. He is best known for his book The Gutenberg Elegies, which posits a decline in reading due to the overwhelming advances of the Internet and other technologies of the "electronic culture."Birkerts was born in Pontiac,...
assumed the editorship. The magazine receives support from the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is Boston University's largest undergraduate school, offering Bachelor of Arts degrees in 23 different departments and 20 interdisciplinary programs...
’ graduate program in Creative Writing. In addition, AGNI relies on funding from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and individual donors.
AGNI publishes two 240-page print issues annually. Each issue includes thirty to forty contributors, with a minimum print run of 3,000. AGNI has subscribers across the United States and in several other countries, is carried by university and public libraries, and is distributed to independent and chain bookstores within the United States. AGNI Online, an electronic extension of the print magazine, features biweekly postings of new Web-only fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews. Both print and online issues include work from multiple languages. Translations from Urdu, Dutch, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Chinese, Turkish, Hebrew, Italian, Slovenian, Polish, French and Latvian have appeared in AGNI.
According to the magazine’s website, “Literature for literature’s sake is not what AGNI is about. Rather, we see literature and the arts as part of a broad, ongoing cultural conversation that every society needs to remain vibrant and alive.”
The magazine’s name comes from Agni
Agni
Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...
, the Vedic god of fire and guardian of mankind. AGNI’s symbol, the flying monkey, was originally conceived of by Erin Belieu
Erin Belieu
-Life:She graduated from Boston University, and Ohio State University with an MFA.She taught at Washington University, Boston University, Kenyon College, and Ohio University.She teaches at Florida State University....
, AGNI's managing editor at the time of the magazine's redesign beginning with AGNI 40, and AGNI interns Richard Curtis and John Mulligan. It has remained since to represent the magazine.
Awards and contributors
Melnyczuk received the PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing in 2001 for his work with AGNI. This biennial award “honors a magazine editor whose high literary standards and tastes have, throughout his or her career, contributed significantly to the excellence of the publication he or she edits.” In the text from the award, PEN said this of AGNI:"...[AGNI] has become a beacon of international literary culture, shining into even the darkest corners of its hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Among readers around the world, AGNI is known for publishing important new writers early in their careers, many of them translated into English for the first time."
AGNI contributors’ work has appeared over the years in The Pushcart Prize anthologies, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best New Poets, Harper's, The O. Henry
O. Henry
O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...
Prize Stories, Best of the Web, Poetry Daily, and has been named in the top ten for the storySouth Million Writers Award for five years, among other honors and publications.
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
has said of AGNI: “The auguries couldn’t be better for now and times to come: this is a cracker of a magazine, a reader’s delight, a standard achieved, a balance held between service to new writers and fidelity to what’s what in writing itself.”
Many prominent writers debuted work of note in AGNI, including Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri is a Bengali American author. Lahiri's debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies , won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake , was adapted into the popular film of the same name. She was born Nilanjana Sudeshna, which she says are both...
, Ha Jin
Ha Jin
Jīn Xuěfēi is a contemporary Chinese-American writer and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin . Ha comes from his favorite city, Harbin.-Early life:...
, Mark Doty
Mark Doty
Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist.-Biography:He was born in Maryville, Tennessee, earned his Bachelor of Arts from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont.In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested...
, Susanna Kaysen
Susanna Kaysen
-Life:Susanna Kaysen was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of economist Carl Kaysen, a professor at MIT and former advisor to President John F. Kennedy, and his wife Annette Neutra Kaysen. Kaysen has one sister and is divorced...
, Glyn Maxwell
Glyn Maxwell
Glyn Maxwell is a British poet.-Early life:Though his parents are Welsh, Maxwell was born and raised in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. He studied English at Worcester College, Oxford. He began an MLitt there, but in 1987 moved to America to study poetry and drama with Derek Walcott at...
, Sven Birkerts, Olena Kalytiak Davis
Olena Kalytiak Davis
Olena Kalytiak Davis is an American poet.She is the author of two poetry collections, most recently, Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, And Other Off-And-Back Handed Importunities . Her first book, And Her Soul Out Of Nothing, won the Brittingham Prize...
, Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
, Russell Banks
Russell Banks
Russell Banks is an American writer of fiction and poetry.- Biography :Russell Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on March 28, 1940. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is also...
, Brock Clarke and Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
.
Contributors to AGNI’s spring 2009 issue--AGNI 69--can be found indexed in AGNI Online.
Submissions
AGNI reads submissions from September 1 to May 31 of each year. Writers can send their work by mail or submit it through the website. The magazine's guidelines allow simultaneous submissions; AGNI sponsors no contests.AGNI Online
AGNI launched its online supplement in 2003 as an extension of the print journal. It posts three new pieces biweekly, amounting to two additional issues of work per year. The website serves approximately 20,000 unique visitors (distinct hosts) a month.AGNI and Boston
AGNI holds several public events each year in the greater BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area and in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Recent events have included "Eurospectives," a reading series in cosponsorship with BU's Institute for Human Sciences that featured writers Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans is a Mexican-American, essayist, lexicographer, cultural commentator, translator, short-story author, TV personality, and teacher known for his insights into American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures.- Life :Ilan Stavans was born in Mexico to a middle-class Jewish family from the Pale...
and Bernhard Schlink
Bernhard Schlink
Bernhard Schlink is a German jurist and writer. He was born in Bethel, Germany, to a German father and a Swiss mother, the youngest of four children. Both his parents were theology students, although his father lost his job as a Professor of Theology due to the Nazis, and had to settle on being a...
; the "Commonwealth Reading Series" with the Massachusetts Cultural Council; and biannual launches of AGNI's new print editions, held typically on BU's campus.