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The First Rule of Literary Magazine Club: Join
I’ve been thinking lately it would be interesting to have a book club where instead of books, the participants read and discuss literary magazines, both in print and online. So often, there is a tendency to read casually, without reflection, and while there’s nothing wrong with that (I’m a fan), there are so many amazing magazines out there worthy of discussion. Often when I set an issue of a magazine down, I feel like I’m not done with it yet, like I want to talk about the writing I’ve just read but there aren’t many people in my life who would be interested in hearing about expectorating orifices or the way that one writer used repetition in really interesting ways or how that other writer tells the sexiest stories or how the last poem in the issue was really quite terrible with a detailed rant as to why.
Is a literary magazine club something you would be interested in joining? What format would you like to see the club follow? What kinds of things should we talk about? What magazines would you like to read? Should we get matching outfits? What should we call ourselves?
I’ve just started thinking through the logistics of a literary magazine club. It would be great to alternate from month to month between print and online magazines. I’d like to kick things off on October 1 with NY Tyrant 8. Who’s with me? (If you are, drop me a line at roxane at roxanegay dot com and I’ll keep you informed of what’s what.)
ETA: Editors, if you want our club to read your magazine and want to offer members a discount, let me know!
I think this is a remarkable idea.
Off the top of my head the journals I’d be most interested in discussing would be McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and Zoetrope: All-Story.
Shameless plug: you should discuss our first online issue at TriQuarterly.
Heh. This brings back memories… .
No offense: I’ll give it a go.
Magazines are cool
I love this! I would prefer that the magazines being read were of the smaller variety (Annalemma, Artifice, Big Lucks, Pank, Hobart, etc.) but that’s just my tastes.
Count me in. How about Supermachine #2? Coming this fall.
TriQuarterly would be a great place to begin. For a reading group, I’d want publications that mix literary writing with commentary, so the discussion doesn’t falter in the thick of interpretation and evaluation.
I’d also like sitting down with Boston Review, Arion, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Sun, Mississippi Review, APR, and Literary Imagination, I think, would all foster good discussion.
This sounds quite a bit like what scientists do at their journal meetings. Whatever science does, I think literature should do, too. (E.g., publish; research; experiment; theorize; prove; debate; debunk; and so on.)
It’s come to my attention that, although there are plenty of online communities based around commercial and genre fiction for both readers and writers alike, there’s barely ANYTHING available for literary fiction lovers. And short story lovers are certainly undersupported.
I say “Hell yes?”
You can quote me on that.
It would be nice if the print mags are common enough to be found everywhere. I know this is a little limiting, but Buford, GA is not a mecca of small literary publications.
i’m in.
Yes, but fortunately, any magazine we read will be available to purchase (or read for free) online. I live in rural Illinois.
This sounds like fun. I’d be interested in reading/discussing Salt Hill, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Black Clock, Hobart, and Willow Springs, among others, and also reading some online mags that I don’t know anything about, etc.
What if we rotated months, with each person picking a mag?
I think that’s a great idea, Mary, having different people pick each month’s magazine.
Sounds like a great time. I agree with Mary–would want to balance the better-knowns (a la Tyrant, most of the others listed here already) with some of the online-only lesser knowns.
This is a great idea.
Selfishly (and impossibly), I wish it could somehow be limited to the unread journal issues I’ve already got lying around. Like New York Tyrant 6. And a stack of Copper Nickels, Keyholes, Ninth Letters, Redividers, Salt Hills, Crazyhorses & Missouris. (the last two b.c of contest entries).
just like a book club!
Great idea. I’d be down for this.
TJY I second the nomination of Copper Nickel, as I also have some sitting here. I’d be down for Annalemma too, Hobart, Juked, Keyhole, PANK, Missouri Review, Canteen, Fence, McSweeney’s, Black Clock, GUD, Pear Noir!, Vain, redivider, Sleepingfish, etc.
These are all journals/rags I’ve read and really enjoyed.
I love Canteen.
Maybe we can get the editor(s) of a magazine to talk with us (borrowing heavily from The Rumpus Book Club). Exciting.
Great idea. NY Tyrant 8! Caketrain, Pank, Noon!
Oh, and Gigantic!
This is a great idea. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned running The Rumpus Book Club.
That would be excellent, Stephen! I like to learn. Your book club started the idea in my head.
I’m sure editors would love to participate in something like this for questions. We certainly would.
I live on the ass end of a heat wave, and even I get mail and internet.
I mean, I’ve got to go through a checkpoint to go see my momma. dog’s sniff my fucking car. they ask if my baby’s a citizen.
Just voicing support for this. It could be a great project in general and a good opportunity to survey the print and online landscape for lit mags. I love it.
I think this is a remarkable idea.
Off the top of my head the journals I’d be most interested in discussing would be McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and Zoetrope: All-Story.
Heh. This brings back memories… .
No offense: I’ll give it a go.
Roxane, where do you live? I always assumed you lived in Chicago for some reason.
I am interested in this, but don’t always have scratch to order a million lit mags (though one every two months probably wouldn’t break the bank). Because of this, I will suggest the following that I either already have subscriptions to or know I’ll be buying/reading:
Chicago Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Artifice, LIES/ISLE (yeah yeah shameless plug, of course), No Colony, PANK, Black Warrior Review
I also have a stack of completely-unread-except-for-the-first issues of 3rd Bed, seems like a lot of people (like me) bought issues when Calamari was having it’s sale, so I’ll go ahead and suggest those as well.
Magazines are cool
I love this! I would prefer that the magazines being read were of the smaller variety (Annalemma, Artifice, Big Lucks, Pank, Hobart, etc.) but that’s just my tastes.
Until very recently, Roxane lived and was completing her phd on the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Now she has relocated to and is about to start teaching in central IL.
Count me in. How about Supermachine #2? Coming this fall.
TriQuarterly would be a great place to begin. For a reading group, I’d want publications that mix literary writing with commentary, so the discussion doesn’t falter in the thick of interpretation and evaluation.
I’d also like sitting down with Boston Review, Arion, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Sun, Mississippi Review, APR, and Literary Imagination, I think, would all foster good discussion.
This sounds quite a bit like what scientists do at their journal meetings. Whatever science does, I think literature should do, too. (E.g., publish; research; experiment; theorize; prove; debate; debunk; and so on.)
It’s come to my attention that, although there are plenty of online communities based around commercial and genre fiction for both readers and writers alike, there’s barely ANYTHING available for literary fiction lovers. And short story lovers are certainly undersupported.
I say “Hell yes?”
You can quote me on that.
Count me in–and maybe to go with Mary’s idea, it would be cool if it rotated between print and online so that those low in funds can join up not worrying about having to shell out every single month?
I know that Gian is going to do an EWN/Tyrant series like the EWN/Unsaid series, discussing each piece that he publishes in the issue. My guess is that he’d be up for editor participation in the club.
does central illinois mean bloomington/normal?
It would be nice if the print mags are common enough to be found everywhere. I know this is a little limiting, but Buford, GA is not a mecca of small literary publications.
i’m in.
Yes, but fortunately, any magazine we read will be available to purchase (or read for free) online. I live in rural Illinois.
This sounds like fun. I’d be interested in reading/discussing Salt Hill, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Black Clock, Hobart, and Willow Springs, among others, and also reading some online mags that I don’t know anything about, etc.
What if we rotated months, with each person picking a mag?
I think that’s a great idea, Mary, having different people pick each month’s magazine.
Sounds like a great time. I agree with Mary–would want to balance the better-knowns (a la Tyrant, most of the others listed here already) with some of the online-only lesser knowns.
Maybe check out Iron Horse Literary Review. My friend Eric Neuenfeldt just won the single author competition for his collection (I’m currently writing a review of it to appear here at HTML Giant).
This is a great idea.
Selfishly (and impossibly), I wish it could somehow be limited to the unread journal issues I’ve already got lying around. Like New York Tyrant 6. And a stack of Copper Nickels, Keyholes, Ninth Letters, Redividers, Salt Hills, Crazyhorses & Missouris. (the last two b.c of contest entries).
just like a book club!
Great idea. I’d be down for this.
TJY I second the nomination of Copper Nickel, as I also have some sitting here. I’d be down for Annalemma too, Hobart, Juked, Keyhole, PANK, Missouri Review, Canteen, Fence, McSweeney’s, Black Clock, GUD, Pear Noir!, Vain, redivider, Sleepingfish, etc.
These are all journals/rags I’ve read and really enjoyed.
Absolutely. Actually I wonder, whether this idea was already realized somewhere. Sometimes, there is so many things to discuss about a literary journal.
I love Canteen.
Maybe we can get the editor(s) of a magazine to talk with us (borrowing heavily from The Rumpus Book Club). Exciting.
Great idea. NY Tyrant 8! Caketrain, Pank, Noon!
Oh, and Gigantic!
This is a great idea. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned running The Rumpus Book Club.
That would be excellent, Stephen! I like to learn. Your book club started the idea in my head.
I’m sure editors would love to participate in something like this for questions. We certainly would.
I live on the ass end of a heat wave, and even I get mail and internet.
I mean, I’ve got to go through a checkpoint to go see my momma. dog’s sniff my fucking car. they ask if my baby’s a citizen.
Just voicing support for this. It could be a great project in general and a good opportunity to survey the print and online landscape for lit mags. I love it.
Think this is a fabulous idea. (And think Rumpus Book Club is a great model.) NYT is great first choice. Please count me in. Would love to promote it in any way I can.
Roxane, where do you live? I always assumed you lived in Chicago for some reason.
I am interested in this, but don’t always have scratch to order a million lit mags (though one every two months probably wouldn’t break the bank). Because of this, I will suggest the following that I either already have subscriptions to or know I’ll be buying/reading:
Chicago Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Artifice, LIES/ISLE (yeah yeah shameless plug, of course), No Colony, PANK, Black Warrior Review
I also have a stack of completely-unread-except-for-the-first issues of 3rd Bed, seems like a lot of people (like me) bought issues when Calamari was having it’s sale, so I’ll go ahead and suggest those as well.
Until very recently, Roxane lived and was completing her phd on the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Now she has relocated to and is about to start teaching in central IL.
Count me in–and maybe to go with Mary’s idea, it would be cool if it rotated between print and online so that those low in funds can join up not worrying about having to shell out every single month?
I know that Gian is going to do an EWN/Tyrant series like the EWN/Unsaid series, discussing each piece that he publishes in the issue. My guess is that he’d be up for editor participation in the club.
does central illinois mean bloomington/normal?
Maybe check out Iron Horse Literary Review. My friend Eric Neuenfeldt just won the single author competition for his collection (I’m currently writing a review of it to appear here at HTML Giant).
Absolutely. Actually I wonder, whether this idea was already realized somewhere. Sometimes, there is so many things to discuss about a literary journal.
Think this is a fabulous idea. (And think Rumpus Book Club is a great model.) NYT is great first choice. Please count me in. Would love to promote it in any way I can.
mike, no. I’m in Charleston which is 47 miles south of Champaign Urbana.
mike, no. I’m in Charleston which is 47 miles south of Champaign Urbana.
Mag Hags?
Finally….It only has taken since the start of the internet for someone to come up with this idea. My magazines are available for reading online in full but I will send the president of your club a free copy per issue if you send me the name and address of your head honcho.
And what shall the name of the lit mag club be?
I’m so in.
(And Smash Cake, hint hint, though not for another month or two.)
Ah, okay. My family used to stop in that town regularly on the way back from vacations, or something, I don’t remember the specifics. I’m just always curious about people who end up living in towns I’ve lived in, for whatever reason.
My Name is Mud
Mag Hags?
Finally….It only has taken since the start of the internet for someone to come up with this idea. My magazines are available for reading online in full but I will send the president of your club a free copy per issue if you send me the name and address of your head honcho.
And what shall the name of the lit mag club be?
I’m so in.
(And Smash Cake, hint hint, though not for another month or two.)
Ah, okay. My family used to stop in that town regularly on the way back from vacations, or something, I don’t remember the specifics. I’m just always curious about people who end up living in towns I’ve lived in, for whatever reason.
My Name is Mud
This is great! I’m loving Tin House, Zoetrope,
Fourth Genre, Granta, Ploughshares, mayb Glimmertrain,
Electric Lit, Black Warrior Review…
This is a fabulous idea.
This is great! I’m loving Tin House, Zoetrope,
Fourth Genre, Granta, Ploughshares, mayb Glimmertrain,
Electric Lit, Black Warrior Review…
Great idea. I’m woefully under-read when it comes to literary journals. Count me in!
This is a fabulous idea.
Great idea. I’m woefully under-read when it comes to literary journals. Count me in!
There’s a great lit journal culture in Australia; you’d have no problems getting your mits on any number of stellar and varied reads. Off the top of my head I’m thinking of the long-standing publications: Overland, Voiceworks, Meanjin and Griffith Review, as well as the newer and more unconventional: Cutwater, Torpedo, The Lifted Brow and Kill Your Darlings
There’s a great lit journal culture in Australia; you’d have no problems getting your mits on any number of stellar and varied reads. Off the top of my head I’m thinking of the long-standing publications: Overland, Voiceworks, Meanjin and Griffith Review, as well as the newer and more unconventional: Cutwater, Torpedo, The Lifted Brow and Kill Your Darlings
I’m certainly up for this.
I’m certainly up for this.
I’m in! I am never aware enough of what my contemporaries are up to, including boning up on literary magazines.
I’m in! I am never aware enough of what my contemporaries are up to, including boning up on literary magazines.
Sounds like a wonderful idea! Looks like there is already a great list of mags going. Here’s a few more that might be included– American Short Fiction, The Normal School, Five Dials, Five Chapters, A Public Space. And a shameless plug to include my own magazine– Stumble. I love this whole idea!
Roxane–please count Lumberyard in! I owe you a letter to boot, so hopefully we’ll talk soon.
Sounds like a wonderful idea! Looks like there is already a great list of mags going. Here’s a few more that might be included– American Short Fiction, The Normal School, Five Dials, Five Chapters, A Public Space. And a shameless plug to include my own magazine– Stumble. I love this whole idea!
Roxane–please count Lumberyard in! I owe you a letter to boot, so hopefully we’ll talk soon.
[…] at HTMLGIANT Roxane Gay is talking about getting together a Literary Magazine Club; another excellent idea. There are an awful lot of publications floating around the literary […]
[…] of loving literary magazines, the Internet Literature Magazine Blog of the Future, HTMLGIANT, has started a literary magazine club modeled on The Rumpus’s book club. Their first issue for discussion? New York Tyrant #8. […]
Water~Stone Review is an annual out of Hamline University in Minnesota. And in the vein of VQR and The Sun, not only do they publish new fiction, CNF and poetry (an interview and book reviews as well) they also publish a photo gallery of work by emerging and world renown photographers. It’s gorgeous and substantial.
Water~Stone Review is an annual out of Hamline University in Minnesota. And in the vein of VQR and The Sun, not only do they publish new fiction, CNF and poetry (an interview and book reviews as well) they also publish a photo gallery of work by emerging and world renown photographers. It’s gorgeous and substantial.