April 16th, 2009 / 9:52 am
Web Hype

Time Out New York and Poets&Writers say kind things about things

vurtego-pogo-stick-1Michael Miller wrote a nice article in the latest issue of Time Out New York praising three fine journals: The New York Tyrant, Agriculture Reader, and NOON. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s an excerpt or two:

Started in 2007, The New York Tyrant is the brainchild of GianCarlo DiTrapano, a former intern at FSG who decided to sell his house in New Orleans to start a literary mag, which he now produces in his studio apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. “I look for writing where it’s evident the authors have sweat over it,” he recently told TONY over drinks in midtown. “I respect writing where the authors expose the shit out of themselves and take risks.”

And this:

Agriculture Reader is so DIY that the first issue was entirely handmade. This is no small feat: According to Jeremy Schmall, who edits the publication with Justin Taylor, each cover had to be hand-painted and hand-cut. Now in its third installment, the zine-ish publication leans more toward poetry than the Tyrant does, but it shares a commitment to publishing bold voices and finding an audience.“Publishing is a conversation, and we don’t want to only be talking to our own little clique,” says Taylor. “I wouldn’t say that we have any particular aesthetic criteria, other than that the work has to thrill us in some way.”

Also, if you haven’t read it yet, Adam Robinson, Peter Cole, and others were written about in Poets&Writers for their work on Baltimore/Nashville Is Reads. Here’s an excerpt with a quotation from Justin Sirois:

The publishing-and-distribution process of Is Reads involves a printer, tape, and a couple of people willing to wander around town. It’s a refreshing approach to putting out a journal, but it nonetheless recalls historic forms such as broadsheets and political posters. Justin Sirois, an Is Reads contributor and founder of the Baltimore-based experimental writing and publishing collective Narrow House, describes the journal as “a guerrilla-style public literature broadside initiative. It’s an attempt to alter the urban environment with language that would never otherwise have a chance to engage the public. It’s a little out of place, but that’s the hook.”

Good work, everyone.

8 Comments

  1. pr

      congrats guys! You deserve the praise- I am so happy to read this!!

  2. pr

      congrats guys! You deserve the praise- I am so happy to read this!!

  3. michael j

      dope. can I get a free copy?

  4. michael j

      dope. can I get a free copy?

  5. Jimmy Chen

      three great enterprises, well deserved

  6. Jimmy Chen

      three great enterprises, well deserved

  7. michael j

      …. is that a no on the free copy of Agricultural reader? I’m kinda poor. Umm… more than poor ’cause I’m like 20k in debt.

  8. michael j

      …. is that a no on the free copy of Agricultural reader? I’m kinda poor. Umm… more than poor ’cause I’m like 20k in debt.