Five Dials
Encyclopedia
Five Dials is a digital literary magazine published from London by Hamish Hamilton
, an imprint of Penguin Books
. Edited by Craig Taylor and designed by Dean Allen, Five Dials features short fiction, essays, letters, poetry, reporting from around the world (humbly tagged “Currentish Events”) and illustrations. The magazine is free and distributed in Portable Document Format
(PDF) approximately every month.
Though available online, the magazine is intended to be printed and enjoyed on paper. Five Dials is downloadable from the Hamish Hamilton website and subscribers receive email notifications about new issues. To date there are seventeen issues of Five Dials, the most recent being the Jaipur issue.
In his editor’s letter for the June 2008 inaugural issue, Craig Taylor describes Five Dials as “the product of a few editors and writers who would like to push a small enterprise into the inboxes of anyone interested in good writing.”
, Noam Chomsky
, Alain De Botton
, Zadie Smith
, Dave Eggers
, Jonathan Safran Foer
, Hari Kunzru, J.M.G. Le Clezio and Susan Sontag
, but the magazine also showcases work from lesser-known journalists, unpublished creative thinkers and even former nuns. Five Dials was once described as "the biggest literary juggernaut journal never to have hit newsstands".
, obscenity, memoir, the late David Foster Wallace
and the American elections. The recent 'Festival Issue' included pieces by musicians from Arcade Fire, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem
and a cameo from Iggy Pop
. The fourteenth issue of the magazine was entirely dedicated to Orhan Pamuk
's essay, delivered after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.
bookstore on the Left Bank, with readings from writers Steve Toltz
and Joe Dunthorne; the tenth issue was released at an event held in conjunction with Book Slam at London's Wilton's Music Hall
in February 2010; and the recent Quebec issue was launched in Montreal. The magazine attracted positive attention from the Canadian and Quebecois press, including the Montreal Mirror
, the Montreal Gazette, and The Walrus
.
. Articles either about or referencing Five Dials have appeared in The Guardian
, The Times
, and UK publishing’s trade magazine The Bookseller
.
Five Dials continues to grow in profile and is still run by Craig Taylor, who is assisted by Hamish Hamilton staff and a team of volunteers in the making of the magazine. Excerpts from Five Dials have appeared in The Guardian, and journalists continue to praise its progress, calling Five Dials "understatedly hip", a "heartbreaking PDF of staggering Internet genius" and "handsomely typset, beautifully illustrated and gloriously devoid of adverts".
Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton . Confusingly, Jamie Hamilton was often referred to as Hamish Hamilton...
, an imprint of Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
. Edited by Craig Taylor and designed by Dean Allen, Five Dials features short fiction, essays, letters, poetry, reporting from around the world (humbly tagged “Currentish Events”) and illustrations. The magazine is free and distributed in Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
(PDF) approximately every month.
Though available online, the magazine is intended to be printed and enjoyed on paper. Five Dials is downloadable from the Hamish Hamilton website and subscribers receive email notifications about new issues. To date there are seventeen issues of Five Dials, the most recent being the Jaipur issue.
In his editor’s letter for the June 2008 inaugural issue, Craig Taylor describes Five Dials as “the product of a few editors and writers who would like to push a small enterprise into the inboxes of anyone interested in good writing.”
History
Named for a seedy and now-extinct part of London near the current site of Hamish Hamilton’s offices on the Strand, Five Dials features work from voices as canny and irrepressible as the misfits who once populated the area. Notable contributors include famous authors living and deceased such as Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Alain De Botton
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton is a Swiss writer, television presenter, and entrepreneur, resident in the UK.His books and television programs discuss various contemporary subjects and themes in a philosophical style, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. In August 2008, he was a founding member...
, Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors...
, Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
, Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer is an American author best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...
, Hari Kunzru, J.M.G. Le Clezio and Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, but the magazine also showcases work from lesser-known journalists, unpublished creative thinkers and even former nuns. Five Dials was once described as "the biggest literary juggernaut journal never to have hit newsstands".
Themed Issues
Since the magazine launched in 2008 there have been several themed issues of Five Dials, focusing on a variety of topics including Broken BritainBroken Britain
Broken Britain is a term which has been used in The Sun newspaper, and by the Conservative Party to describe a perceived widespread state of social decay in Britain...
, obscenity, memoir, the late David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
and the American elections. The recent 'Festival Issue' included pieces by musicians from Arcade Fire, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem was a prominent American dance-punk band from New York City. It was fronted by American singer-songwriter and producer James Murphy, co-founder of record label DFA Records...
and a cameo from Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
. The fourteenth issue of the magazine was entirely dedicated to Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....
's essay, delivered after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.
Events
Five Dials has staged several events in the UK and abroad to celebrate the release of the magazine. In September 2009, the Paris issue was launched from the famous Shakespeare and CompanyShakespeare and Company
Shakespeare and Company or Shakespeare & Company may refer to:*Shakespeare and Company , an English-language bookshop in Paris, France; hosts the annual Shakespeare & Company Literary Festival in June....
bookstore on the Left Bank, with readings from writers Steve Toltz
Steve Toltz
-Life and works:Toltz attended Knox Grammar School, Killara High School and graduated from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1994. Prior to his literary career, he lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, and Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, security...
and Joe Dunthorne; the tenth issue was released at an event held in conjunction with Book Slam at London's Wilton's Music Hall
Wilton's Music Hall
Wilton's Music Hall is a grade II* listed building, built as a music hall and now a more general-purpose performance space in Grace's Alley, off Cable Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets...
in February 2010; and the recent Quebec issue was launched in Montreal. The magazine attracted positive attention from the Canadian and Quebecois press, including the Montreal Mirror
Montreal Mirror
Montreal Mirror is a free English language alternative newsweekly based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a circulation of 70,000, and reaches a quarter of a million readers per week. It is published by Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltée....
, the Montreal Gazette, and The Walrus
The Walrus
The Walrus is a Canadian general interest magazine which publishes long form journalism on Canadian and international affairs, along with fiction and poetry by Canadian writers. It launched in September 2003, as an attempt to create a Canadian equivalent to American magazines such as Harper's, The...
.
Literary magazine
Five Dials is one of several magazines that have been credited with the rebirth of the literary journal, albeit in a slightly different form to publications such as the London Review of BooksLondon Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
. Articles either about or referencing Five Dials have appeared in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, and UK publishing’s trade magazine The Bookseller
The Bookseller
The Bookseller is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Neill Denny is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine, while Philip Jones is deputy editor, having recently been promoted from the position of managing editor of the Bookseller.com...
.
Five Dials continues to grow in profile and is still run by Craig Taylor, who is assisted by Hamish Hamilton staff and a team of volunteers in the making of the magazine. Excerpts from Five Dials have appeared in The Guardian, and journalists continue to praise its progress, calling Five Dials "understatedly hip", a "heartbreaking PDF of staggering Internet genius" and "handsomely typset, beautifully illustrated and gloriously devoid of adverts".