Suggest me some unpretentious literary magazines.

November 4, 2008 12:57 PM

Suggest some magazines which publish short stories and poetry that are not stuffy and pretentious. Also, any science fiction magazines that are worth reading would be greatly appreciated as well.

Basically, I am looking for a magazine that publishes works for the everyman, so to speak. Some of the authors I enjoy: : Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Philip K Dick, John Fante, Chuck Palahiuk just to name a few. Hope that's enough info.

posted by scarello to media & arts (9 comments total)

Check out http://www.tor.com , it has short stories from one of America's major Science Fiction/Fantasy publishers and is an interesting blog on the subject as well.
posted by skewedoracle at 1:02 PM on November 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Zoetrope
posted by timsteil at 1:37 PM on November 4, 2008

Tin House. It's fat and fancy, kind of Granta like, but I took them up on an offer of a free sample copy and ended up subscribing. (Their covers are cool, too.) Disclaimer: I read the New Yorker for the articles, you know, like some people read Playboy, but I often end up reading fiction that was first published therein (NYer, not PB so much) whenit's chosen for Best American Short Stories. Tin House, check it out. It's back to (wo)manning the polling place for me now. I gave my break to AskMeFi!

Good Luck--Elizabeth
posted by emhutchinson at 1:41 PM on November 4, 2008

If you don't mind the regional slant, try the Oxford American.

SandPine
posted by sandpine at 1:47 PM on November 4, 2008

Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet kind of does both--they mostly publish what you might call speculative literary fiction, but of a slightly more out-there cast.
Their tagline: "A collection of fiction and sometimes fancy (but usually plain)."

And, you can get a subscription that includes a "good chocolate bar"! (I got this one, and the chocolate is in fact good.)
They also have many other excellent subscription options.
posted by exceptinsects at 10:24 PM on November 4, 2008

For SF, you can't go wrong with Fantasy & Science Fiction or Asimov's.
posted by Shoggoth at 5:53 AM on November 5, 2008

Analog is the science fiction magazine that has the reputation as the least pretentious, it is nuts and bolts, meat and two veg SF. The exact opposite of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet in fact.

I would instead second Shoggoth in recommending F&SF which falls somewhere in-between.
posted by ninebelow at 6:10 AM on November 5, 2008

Great suggestions thus far. Thanks very much!
posted by scarello at 11:26 AM on November 5, 2008

F&SF's editor, Gordon Van Gedder, has a great eye for new writers and for ballsy, Ellison-esque SF.

I always liked the review pieces in The Common Review, but I don't think they do fiction (they do however, have some surprisingly good poetry.)
posted by The Whelk at 6:52 AM on November 6, 2008