Literary magazine
Encyclopedia
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature
in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories
, poetry
and essay
s along with literary criticism
, book review
s, biographical profiles of author
s, interview
s and letters. Literary magazines are often called literary journals, or little magazines, which is not meant as a pejorative
but instead as a contrast with larger, commercial magazines.
s being published at that time. In Great Britain, critics Francis Jeffrey
, Henry Brougham
and Sydney Smith
founded the Edinburgh Review
in 1802. Other British reviews of this period included the Westminster Review
(1824), The Spectator
(1828) and Athenaeum
(1828). In the United States, early journals included the Philadelphia Literary Magazine (1803–08), the Monthly Anthology (1803–11), which became the North American Review
, the Yale Review
(founded in 1819), Dial (1840–44) and the New Orleans-based De Bow's Review (1846–80). Several prominent literary magazines were published in Charleston, South Carolina
, including The Southern Review from 1828–32 and Russell's Magazine from 1857–60).
The North American Review is the oldest American literary magazine, but publication was suspended during World War II whereas the Yale Review was not, making the Yale journal the oldest literary magazine in continuous publication. By the end of the century, literary magazines had become an important feature of intellectual life in many parts of the world.
Among the literary magazines that began in the early part of the 20th century is Poetry
magazine founded in 1912, which published T. S. Eliot
's first poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
." Other important early-20th century literary magazines include The Times Literary Supplement
(1902), Southwest Review
(1915), Virginia Quarterly Review (1925), Southern Review
(1935) and New Letters (1935). The Sewanee Review
, although founded in 1892, achieved prominence largely thanks to Allen Tate
, who became editor in 1944.
Two of the most influential — and radically different — journals of the last-half of the 20th century were The Kenyon Review
(KR) and the Partisan Review
. The Kenyon Review, founded by John Crowe Ransom, espoused the so-called New Criticism
. Its platform was avowedly unpolitical. Although Ransom came from the South and published authors from that region, KR also published many New York-based and international authors. The Partisan Review was first associated with the American Communist Party and the John Reed Club
, however, it soon broke ranks with the party. Nevertheless, politics remained central to its character, while it also published significant literature and criticism.
The middle-20th century saw a boom in the number of literary magazines, which corresponded with the rise of the small press
. Among the important journals which began in this period were Nimbus: A Magazine of Literature, the Arts, and New Ideas
, which began publication in 1951 in England, the Paris Review
, which was founded in 1953, Poetry Northwest
, which was founded in 1959, X Magazine
, which ran from 1959–62, and the Denver Quarterly
, which began in 1965. The 1970s saw another surge in the number of literary magazines, with a number of distinguished journals getting their start during this decade, including Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art
, Ploughshares
, The Iowa Review
, Granta
, Agni
, The Missouri Review
, and New England Review
. Other highly regarded print magazines of recent years include The Threepenny Review
, The Georgia Review
, The Massachusetts Review
, Ascent
, Shenandoah
, The Greensboro Review
, ZYZZYVA
, Glimmer Train
, Tin House
, the Canadian magazine Brick, the Australian magazine HEAT
, and Zoetrope: All-Story
. Some short fiction writers, such as Steve Almond
and Stephen Dixon have built national reputations in the United States primarily through publication in literary magazines.
The Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers (COSMEP) was founded by Hugh Fox in the mid-1970s. It was an attempt to organize the energy of the small presses. Len Fulton, editor and founder of Dustbook Publishing, assembled and published the first real list of these small magazines and their editors in the mid-1970s. This made it possible for poets to pick and choose the publications most amenable to their work and the vitality of these independent publishers was recognized by the larger community, including the National Endowment for the Arts
, which created a committee to distribute support money for this burgeoning group of publishers called the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM). This organisation evolved into the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
(CLMP).
Many prestigious awards exist for works published in literary magazines including the Pushcart Prize
and the O. Henry Awards. Literary magazines also provide many of the pieces in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Essays
annual volumes.
, 3:AM Magazine
, 20x20 magazine
, The Barcelona Review, Eclectica Magazine
, ĕm
, Failbetter
, Guernica Magazine
, Identity Theory (webzine)
, Literary Mama
, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Monkeybicycle
, Sensitive Skin Magazine
, Spike Magazine
, StorySouth
, The Washington Pastime, and Word Riot
, Parabaas (in Bengali) but there are higher quality smaller markets like Literarily, Unlikely Stories, Pank, Fleeting
, La Petite Zine, Fringe and Cha
and literally thousands of online literary publications so it is difficult to judge the quality and overall impact of this relatively new publishing medium.
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s along with literary criticism
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, book review
Book review
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review could be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review. It is often carried out in periodicals, as school work, or on the internet. Reviews are also often...
s, biographical profiles of author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
s, interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
s and letters. Literary magazines are often called literary journals, or little magazines, which is not meant as a pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
but instead as a contrast with larger, commercial magazines.
History of literary magazine
Literary magazines first began to appear in the early part of the 19th century, mirroring an overall rise in the number of books, magazines and scholarly journalJournal
__FORCETOC__A journal has several related meanings:* a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary....
s being published at that time. In Great Britain, critics Francis Jeffrey
Francis Jeffrey
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey was a Scottish judge and literary critic.He was born in Edinburgh, the son of a clerk in the Court of Session. After attending the Royal High School for six years, he studied at the University of Glasgow from 1787 to May 1789, and at Queen's College, Oxford, from...
, Henry Brougham
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a British statesman who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in...
and Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith was an English writer and Anglican cleric. -Life:Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith and Maria Olier , who suffered from epilepsy...
founded the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
in 1802. Other British reviews of this period included the Westminster Review
Westminster Review
The Westminster Review was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828....
(1824), The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
(1828) and Athenaeum
Athenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
(1828). In the United States, early journals included the Philadelphia Literary Magazine (1803–08), the Monthly Anthology (1803–11), which became the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
, the Yale Review
Yale Review
The Yale Review is the self-proclaimed oldest literary quarterly in the United States. It is published by Yale University.It was founded originally in 1819 as The Christian Spectator. At its origin it was published to support Evangelicalism, but over time began to publish more on history and...
(founded in 1819), Dial (1840–44) and the New Orleans-based De Bow's Review (1846–80). Several prominent literary magazines were published in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, including The Southern Review from 1828–32 and Russell's Magazine from 1857–60).
The North American Review is the oldest American literary magazine, but publication was suspended during World War II whereas the Yale Review was not, making the Yale journal the oldest literary magazine in continuous publication. By the end of the century, literary magazines had become an important feature of intellectual life in many parts of the world.
Among the literary magazines that began in the early part of the 20th century is Poetry
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
magazine founded in 1912, which published T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's first poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, commonly known as Prufrock, is a poem by T. S. Eliot, begun in February 1910 and published in Chicago in June 1915. Described as a "drama of literary anguish," it presents a stream of consciousness in the form of a dramatic monologue, and marked the beginning of...
." Other important early-20th century literary magazines include The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
(1902), Southwest Review
Southwest Review
The Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States of America . The current editor-in-chief is Willard Spiegelman.The journal was formerly known as the...
(1915), Virginia Quarterly Review (1925), Southern Review
Southern Review
The Southern Review, a literary journal co-founded in 1935 by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks and located on the campus of Louisiana State University, publishes fiction, poetry, critical essays, interviews, book reviews, and excerpts from novels in progress by established and emerging writers...
(1935) and New Letters (1935). The Sewanee Review
Sewanee Review
The Sewanee Review is a literary journal established in 1892 and the oldest continuously published periodical of its kind in the United States. It incorporates original fiction and poetry, as well as essays, reviews, and literary criticism...
, although founded in 1892, achieved prominence largely thanks to Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
, who became editor in 1944.
Two of the most influential — and radically different — journals of the last-half of the 20th century were The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
(KR) and the Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
. The Kenyon Review, founded by John Crowe Ransom, espoused the so-called New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
. Its platform was avowedly unpolitical. Although Ransom came from the South and published authors from that region, KR also published many New York-based and international authors. The Partisan Review was first associated with the American Communist Party and the John Reed Club
John Reed Club
The John Reed Club was an American, semi-national, Marxist club for writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist, activist, and poet, John Reed.-Founding:...
, however, it soon broke ranks with the party. Nevertheless, politics remained central to its character, while it also published significant literature and criticism.
The middle-20th century saw a boom in the number of literary magazines, which corresponded with the rise of the small press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
. Among the important journals which began in this period were Nimbus: A Magazine of Literature, the Arts, and New Ideas
Nimbus (literary magazine)
Nimbus, "A Magazine of Literature, the Arts, and New Ideas", was a literary magazine co-founded in London in 1951 by Martin Green and Tristram Hull.- History :...
, which began publication in 1951 in England, the Paris Review
Paris Review
The Paris Review is a literary quarterly founded in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton. Plimpton edited the Review from its founding until his death in 2003. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S...
, which was founded in 1953, Poetry Northwest
Poetry Northwest
Poetry Northwest was founded as a quarterly, poetry-only journal in 1959 by Errol Pritchard, with Carolyn Kizer, Richard Hugo, and Nelson Bentley as co-editors...
, which was founded in 1959, X Magazine
X (magazine)
X, A Quarterly Review was a British arts review published in London which ran for seven issues between 1959-1962. It was founded and co-edited by Patrick Swift and David Wright...
, which ran from 1959–62, and the Denver Quarterly
Denver Quarterly
The Denver Quarterly is a literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Williams.-Best American Short Stories:...
, which began in 1965. The 1970s saw another surge in the number of literary magazines, with a number of distinguished journals getting their start during this decade, including Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art
Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art
Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art is an American annual literary journal founded in 1977. It is entirely edited, designed, and produced by students. The journal is based at Columbia University in New York City. It publishes new fiction, essays and poetry each year. Work that appeared in...
, Ploughshares
Ploughshares
Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
, The Iowa Review
The Iowa Review
The Iowa Review is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews.Founded in 1970, this magazine is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December. Originally, it was released on a quarterly basis. This frequency of publication lasted...
, Granta
Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
, Agni
AGNI (magazine)
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...
, The Missouri Review
The Missouri Review
The Missouri Review is a literary magazine. Founded in 1978 by the University of Missouri, it publishes fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction quarterly. With its open submission policy, The Missouri Review receives 12,000 manuscripts each year and is known for printing previously unpublished...
, and New England Review
New England Review
The New England Review is a quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. Founded in New Hampshire in 1978 by poet, novelist, editor and professor Sydney Lea and poet Jay Parini, it was published as New England Review & Bread Loaf Quarterly from 1982 , until 1991 as a formal...
. Other highly regarded print magazines of recent years include The Threepenny Review
The Threepenny Review
The Threepenny Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1980. It is published in Berkeley, California by founding editor Wendy Lesser. Maintaining a quarterly schedule , it offers fiction, memoirs, poetry, essays and criticism to a readership of 10,000...
, The Georgia Review
The Georgia Review
The Georgia Review is an award-winning, nationally respected literary journal founded in 1947 that includes poetry, art, fiction, essays and reviews. It won the National Magazine Award for Fiction in 1986 and the National Magazine Award for Essay in 2007...
, The Massachusetts Review
The Massachusetts Review
The Massachusetts Review is a national literary journal founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst....
, Ascent
Ascent (journal)
Ascent is an American literary magazine that publishes stories, poems, essays and reviews, many of which are later reprinted in annual anthologies. The journal is based at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota....
, Shenandoah
Shenandoah (magazine)
Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Review is a major literary magazine published by Washington and Lee University.- History :Originally a student-run quarterly, Shenandoah has evolved into a triannual literary journal edited by author R. T...
, The Greensboro Review
The Greensboro Review
The Greensboro Review is a literary magazine, based at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Greensboro, North Carolina. It publishes fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction on a quarterly basis. Work from the journal is featured in such anthologies as New Stories from the South, the...
, ZYZZYVA
Zyzzyva (magazine)
Zyzzyva is a triannual magazine of writers and artists. It places an emphasis on showcasing emerging voices and never before published writers in addition to the already established. Based in San Francisco, it began publishing in 1985. ZYZZYVAs slogan is "The Last Word," referring to "zyzzyva", the...
, Glimmer Train
Glimmer Train
Glimmer Train is an American literary journal founded in 1990 in Portland, Oregon. It is published quarterly.-Past contributors:* Brad Barkley* Charles Baxter* Ron Carlson* Greg Downs* Peter Selgin* Andre Dubus III* Aaron Gwyn* Noy Holland...
, Tin House
Tin House
Tin House is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon and New York City. The Tin House magazine was conceived in the summer of 1998 by Portland publisher Win McCormack. He envisioned a journal that would be graphically appealing and free of the stale substance...
, the Canadian magazine Brick, the Australian magazine HEAT
HEAT (magazine)
HEAT was an international Australian literary magazine published by Giramondo Publishing and the University of Western Sydney.- History :...
, and Zoetrope: All-Story
Zoetrope: All-Story
Zoetrope: All-Story is an American literary magazine that was launched in 1997 by Francis Ford Coppola. Blooming from Francis Coppola's "Crazy Idea Department," All-Story is devoted to showcasing the most promising voices in short-fiction...
. Some short fiction writers, such as Steve Almond
Steve Almond
Steve Almond is an American short story writer and essayist. He is the author of eight books.-Life:He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. He spent seven years as a newspaper reporter,...
and Stephen Dixon have built national reputations in the United States primarily through publication in literary magazines.
The Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers (COSMEP) was founded by Hugh Fox in the mid-1970s. It was an attempt to organize the energy of the small presses. Len Fulton, editor and founder of Dustbook Publishing, assembled and published the first real list of these small magazines and their editors in the mid-1970s. This made it possible for poets to pick and choose the publications most amenable to their work and the vitality of these independent publishers was recognized by the larger community, including 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...
, which created a committee to distribute support money for this burgeoning group of publishers called the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM). This organisation evolved into the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses is an American organization of independent literary publishers and magazines. It was founded in 1967 by Robie Macauley, Reed Whittemore ; Jules Chametzky ; George Plimpton ; and William Phillips as the...
(CLMP).
Many prestigious awards exist for works published in literary magazines including the Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
and the O. Henry Awards. Literary magazines also provide many of the pieces in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Essays
The Best American Essays
The Best American Essays is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States. It was started in 1986 and is now part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin...
annual volumes.
Online literary magazines
Around 1996, online literary magazines began to appear. At first, some writers and readers dismissed online literary magazines as not equal in quality or prestige to their print counterparts, while others said that these were not properly magazines and were instead ezines. Since then, though, many writers and readers have accepted online literary magazines as another step in the evolution of the independent literary journals. Among the better known online literary magazines are The Applicant, Drunken Boat, Blackbird, Painted Bride QuarterlyPainted Bride Quarterly
Painted Bride Quarterly is a Philadelphia-based literary magazine.Established in 1973 by Louise Simons and R. Daniel Evans, the magazine is based in Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. It is staffed by a mix of volunteer editors and changing student staff...
, 3:AM Magazine
3:AM Magazine
3:AM Magazine is a literary magazine, which was set up as 3ammagazine.com in April 2000 and is edited from Paris. Its editor-in-chief since inception has been Andrew Gallix, a lecturer at the Sorbonne ....
, 20x20 magazine
20x20 magazine
20x20 magazine is a London-based art and literature publication. It was started in 2008, by editors Francesca Ricci and Giovanna Paternò, formerly of the underground art publication Interlude. 20x20 takes its name from its physical size and dimension...
, The Barcelona Review, Eclectica Magazine
Eclectica Magazine
Eclectica is one of the oldest surviving online literary publications. Founded in 1996 by Chris Lott and Tom Dooley, Eclectica's extensive and growing archives features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, miscellany, travel, opinion, and reviews by hundreds of authors from around the world...
, ĕm
EM
- Cities :* El Monte, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States* El Monte, Chile, Talagante Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile- Codes :EM is:* Aero Benin, in IATA reservation code...
, Failbetter
Failbetter
failbetter is a quarterly online literary magazine.-Founding:Founded in 2000 by Thom Didato and David McLendon, the magazine originally evolved from a Brooklyn-based reading series that featured many writers from the Gordon Lish school of writing. McLendon left failbetter in 2003 to pursue his own...
, Guernica Magazine
Guernica Magazine
Guernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics is a biweekly online site that publishes art and photography, fiction, and poetry, from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces and opinion pieces on international affairs and U.S. domestic policy...
, Identity Theory (webzine)
Identity Theory (webzine)
Identity Theory is a webzine of literature and culture, founded by University of Florida graduate Matt Borondy, established in 2000. Identity Theory is a non-profit website with substantial readership and a staff of over a dozen volunteers, including Robert Birnbaum...
, Literary Mama
Literary Mama
Literary Mama is a U.S.-based online literary magazine focused on publishing writing about motherhood in a variety of genre. The writing found at Literary Mama challenges all types of media to rethink its narrow focus of what mothers think and do...
, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Monkeybicycle
Monkeybicycle
Monkeybicycle is a literary journal with both print and Web versions. It was founded in 2002 in Seattle, Washington, by Steven Seighman. He was intent on publishing both well-known writers and those who might not have been heard of yet, but should be...
, Sensitive Skin Magazine
Sensitive Skin Magazine
Sensitive Skin was a magazine created and edited by B. Kold and Norman Douglas. Started in 1991, the first four issues were titled "Peau Sensible," which is French for "Sensitive Skin." Subsequent issues were titled in English. In 1994, John Farris, Patricia Winter, and Darius James joined the...
, Spike Magazine
Spike Magazine
Spike Magazine is an internet cultural journal which began in 1996, founded by its editor Chris Mitchell in Brighton, England. Updated monthly, its motto is "picking the brains of popular culture", though it has an intellectual inclination.-Description:...
, StorySouth
StorySouth
storySouth is an online quarterly literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, criticism, essays, and visual artwork, with a focus on the Southern United States. The journal also runs the annual Million Writers Award to select the best short stories published each year in online magazines or...
, The Washington Pastime, and Word Riot
Word Riot
Word Riot is an American online magazine that publishes poetry, flash fiction, short stories, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, reviews, and interviews. The magazine was launched in March 2002 by author and publisher Jackie Corley with the help of the late Paula Anderson. In 2003, a publishing...
, Parabaas (in Bengali) but there are higher quality smaller markets like Literarily, Unlikely Stories, Pank, Fleeting
Fleeting Magazine
Fleeting Magazine is an online literary magazine for short form poetry and fiction by new and established writers. First presented in 2009 it publishes what it calls “erudite, infectious” pieces, showcasing each contribution in a one item per page format....
, La Petite Zine, Fringe and Cha
Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
Cha: An Asian Literary Journal is the first Hong Kong-based online English literary journal. It was founded in 2007, a decade after the handover, by and . The editorial team also includes Reviews Editor ....
and literally thousands of online literary publications so it is difficult to judge the quality and overall impact of this relatively new publishing medium.
See also
- List of literary magazines
- Literary fictionLiterary fictionLiterary fiction is a term that came into common usage during the early 1960s. The term is principally used to distinguish "serious fiction" which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, in comparison from genre fiction and popular fiction . In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon...
- Creative nonfictionCreative nonfictionCreative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service...
- Short storyShort storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
External links
- The Washington Pastime Literary Magazine & Literary Publication
- Council of Literary Magazines and Small Presses
- The Little Magazine a Hundred Years On A Reader's Report by Steve Evans
- Little Magazine Interview Index Housed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Special Collections, the Little Magazine Collection, one of the most extensive of its kind in the United States, includes approximately 7,000 English-language literary magazines published in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand, mostly in the 20th century.
- Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art