Magazine rack

June 1, 2010 2:54 PM

Which magazines are you reading that contain non-fiction content, both contemporary and historical, in the vein of Harper's and the New Yorker (not afraid to be intellectual, cosmopolitan, or edgy, with or without relevance to current events)?
posted by Jason and Laszlo to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

Two excellent Canadian ones:

The Walrus

Aberta Views
posted by ethnomethodologist at 2:59 PM on June 1, 2010

The Walrus and The Baffler. The Baffler was on hiatus for a couple of years and just came back and is so great.

(On preview: the Walrus is worth seconding and I'm not even Canadian).
posted by xueexueg at 3:00 PM on June 1, 2010

The Atlantic, though it tends more conservative than (say) Harper's.
posted by chalkbored at 3:03 PM on June 1, 2010

I like Granta, though only some of the articles are available free online, and the London Review of Books.
posted by selton at 3:10 PM on June 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Lots of good suggestions in this thread too.

Also thirding The Walrus and adding to it Good if you can still find it anywhere.

Lots of the feminist magazines do a great job of covering current events from interesting perspectives. Might be too specific for your needs, however.
posted by Pomo at 3:23 PM on June 1, 2010

I was coming in here to suggest The Walrus, and I am also not Canadian.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 3:28 PM on June 1, 2010

Mine is the old stand-bys: The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Wired, and maybe a few others.

But actually, one of the resources I've started using recently that have come to totally dominate my reading is Longform.org which is an aggregator of long(ish) non-fiction articles. So, so much great stuff. It's not dead-tree, but it integrates beautifully with Instapaper, and from there it's easy to get to your iPhone or Kindle or whatever (I was so happy when I figured out how to get Instapaper into Stanza on the iPhone with no hassle).
posted by gkhan at 3:30 PM on June 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

Lapham's Quarterly, which is run by former Harper's editor Lewis Lapham, is exactly what you're looking for.
posted by cirripede at 3:44 PM on June 1, 2010

Arts & Letters Daily continuously compiles a lot of the interesting pieces that have come from the long list of influential English-language magazines, papers, columnists, and blogs running down the side of the page.

A useful basic list of the majors: Wikipedia template English-language current affairs and culture magazines (click on [show]).

Others that I also read off and on:

• Vanity Fair
• Oxford American
• Esquire
• Smithsonian
• Texas Monthly
• The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
• American Scientist
• The Observer Magazine (UK)
• Orion
• The Christian Science Monitor (technically not a magazine, but it functions like a newsweekly for me)
• BusinessWeek
• First Things (Catholic-ish)
• Wired
• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• The American Scholar
• Washington Monthly
• The Believer
• National Geographic
• BBC News Magazine

I also liked Portfolio during its very brief run in print, and I wish I had more of the back issues.
posted by hat at 4:27 PM on June 1, 2010

I have recently subscribed to and fallen in love with Columbia Journalism Review. In the latest issue, the Cornelius Ryan bio and the "Look at Me" cover story were both fascinating.
posted by loosemouth at 5:10 PM on June 1, 2010

I've come to really love The Sun. It always has really insightful interviews with intelligent, thoughtful scientists, philosophers, artists, scholars, etc., about any and all subjects.
Also well-written personal narrative non-fiction and essays, as well as plenty of fiction and poetry. Very soulful, high-quality stuff and no advertising. I love The New Yorker and Harpers too but The Sun is a nice antidote to the modern, snarky, cynical fare sometimes found there.
posted by lukievan at 6:08 PM on June 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Seconding Vanity Fair and Esquire -- I was pleasantly surprised by the readability of both when I got a free subscription of each from some website. Speaking of free subscriptions, Maxim hands them out like candy if you know where to look, and each issue usually has one long-form "true crime" story that's worth the price of a free subscription.

For a worth-the-money subscription, Utne Reader is a good (but left-leaning) anthology of news, analysis, and non-fiction
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:17 PM on June 1, 2010

The Virginia Quarterly Review is very, very good. I believe there's a small discount for MeFites, but I can't remember how to access it.
posted by Kattullus at 7:22 PM on June 1, 2010

Wired, First Monday, and the Atlantic. All have semi-academic articles (First Monday perhaps more academic than most). All have both social and technical articles (or at least sociotechnical). All have articles I am really glad that I did not miss.
posted by Susurration at 7:48 PM on June 1, 2010

Seconding The Sun. The Readers Write section is always amazing. Letters about a particular topic, that changes from month to month, elicit responses from people that leave me in awe.
posted by atchafalaya at 8:35 PM on June 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Kattullus, you get the small discount by calling them up, courtesy of waldo, and the Breaking Up with John Updike related question below!
posted by cgc373 at 9:02 PM on June 1, 2010

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern has a lot of fiction, but they have started doing some journalism as well.
posted by Jorus at 2:38 AM on June 2, 2010

2nd The Believer. It's pretty much all arts-focused, but consistently has articles that tell you everything you ever wanted to know about something fascinating that you never even would have thought to wonder about. It's like long-form MetaFilter in your mailbox.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:14 AM on June 2, 2010

You might like N+1 -- it’s the only other pub I subscribe to besides the New Yorker.
posted by dyslexictraveler at 2:00 PM on June 2, 2010