Pif Magazine
Encyclopedia
Pif Magazine is one of the oldest, continually published literary zines online. Founded in 1995 by Richard Luck, the magazine has published original works by authors such as Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College.-Life:Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois...

, Julia Slavin
Julia Slavin
Julia Slavin is an award winning American short story writer, and novelist. Her works are generally surrealist comedy that have been described as if the Desperate Housewives meet Kafka.Her work has appeared in Gargoyle Magazine, and Tin House....

, Richard Yates
Richard Yates (novelist)
Richard Yates was an American novelist and short story writer, known for his exploration of mid-20th century life.-Life:...

, and David Lehman
David Lehman
David Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.-Career:...

, as well as interviews with modern literary greats like A. Manette Ansay
A. Manette Ansay
A. Manette Ansay is an American author, born in Lapeer, Michigan.-Fiction:*Vinegar Hill *Read This and Tell Me What It Says *Sister *River Angel *Midnight Champagne *Blue Water...

, Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, songwriter, and novelist. She was born to a Palestinian father and American mother. Although she regards herself as a "wandering poet", she refers to San Antonio as her home.-Career:...

, 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...

, and William H. Gass
William H. Gass
William Howard Gass is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and former philosophy professor. He has written two novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven volumes of essays, three of which have won National Book Critics Circle Award...

.

Chronology

  • October 1995 - Issue #1 went online
  • October 1997 - Contributing editors Stefene Russell and Robynn Clairday join PIF.
  • March 1998 - Anne Doolittle joins as Poetry Editor and Camille Renshaw joins as Fiction Editor.
  • April 1998 - Launches "Penguin", which is for a short period of time the net's largest literary-specific search engine. Within weeks of its launch, PIF changes the name of its search engine, bowing to pressure from Penguin Books Ltd.
  • May 1998 - Camille Renshaw becomes Managing Editor.
  • August 1998 - Magazine moves to its current domain:
  • August 2004 - Rachel Sage becomes Managing Editor.
  • March 2006 - Derek Alger becomes Managing Editor.

Meaning

Pif Magazine is often referred to simply as PIF. There is speculation that PIF stands for "Poetry, Interviews, and Fiction". Founder, Richard Luck has claimed that PIF is "whatever you want it to be. For me it was a typographical error on a poetry submission that reproduced well visually. That and it had a nice ring to it. It was memorable." Thomas E. Kennedy offered a different observation in his recent article on the subject.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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