Literary magazine
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A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews, 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 commercially oriented magazines. In general, literary magazines function as a sort of literary nursery for writers by publishing new works by authors who are not yet established or well known.
History of literary magazines
Literary magazines first began to appear in the early part of the nineteenth century, mirroring an overall rise in the number of books, magazines, and scholarly journals being published at that time. There were a number of litarary magazines in Europe (especially in England and Russia) and the United States. Even though many of these magazines were not necessarily entirely literary in content and most had a short lifespan, they thrived in cities both large and small (for example, several literary magazines were published in Charleston, South Carolina, including the Southern Review from 1828–32 and Russell's Magazine from 1857–60). [link] An exception to this short-lived rule is The North American Review, which was founded in 1815 and is still in print, making it the oldest literary magazine in the United States. By the end of the century, literary magazines had become an important feature of intellectual life in many parts of the world.
Among the important literary magazines that began in the early part of that 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 Southern Review and New Letters, both founded in 1935.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, and the Paris Review, which was founded in 1953. The 1970s saw another surge in the number of literary magazines, with a number of distinguished journals getting their start during this decade (including Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and others). Other well-regarded print magazines of recent years include Threepenny Review, ZYZZYVA, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and Fence.
Online literary magazines
Around 1996, online literary magazines began to appear. At first, many writers and readers dismissed online literary magazines as not equalling 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 this publishing genre. Among the important online literary magazines are 2River, Blackbird, [[3:AM Magazine]], Dublin Quarterly, Pindeldyboz, Eclectica Magazine, and storySouth.
Print and online literary magazines mentioned in article
For more literary magazines, see List of literary magazines
- [The Barcelona Review]
- [Blackbird]
- [Boston Review]
- Clarion
- [Diagram]
- [Dublin Quarterly]
- [Eclectica Magazine]
- [Fence]
- [The Georgia Review]
- [Granta]
- [Juice online]
- [Land-Grant College Review]
- [McSweeney's]
- [3:AM Magazine]
- [The Mississippi Review]
- [The Missouri Review]
- [New Letters]
- [News from the Republic of Letters]
- [The North American Review]
- [The Paris Review]
- [Pindeldyboz]
- [Pleiades]
- [Ploughshares]
- [Poetry Magazine]
- [Prairie Schooner]
- [Sewanee Review]
- [Small Spiral Notebook]
- [The Southern Review]
- [storySouth]
- [Zoetrope All-Story]
- [ZYZZYVA]
External links
- [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.
- [Web del Sol] A clearing house for a number of literary journals
- [NewPages] Alternatives in Print & Media
See also
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