Magazine subscription suggestions

December 12, 2021 11:01 AM

I want to get someone a magazine subscription as a stocking stuffer. I need something in the vein of Atlantic Monthly, Texas Monthly, Harpers, NYer, Utne Reader, etc. Something relatively smart, general interest, left-leaning, but preferably a tad more obscure than the above. Thanks in advance!
posted by nushustu to Society & Culture (32 answers total)

Virginia Quarterly Review.
posted by mollymayhem at 11:08 AM on December 12, 2021

I was going to suggest Cabinet, but it appears to have gone online-only. A shame as it was beautifully printed and well worth the cost.

If a book subscription might fit the bill, Transit Books has a subscription option - I've been a subscriber and almost everything they publish has been great.
posted by niicholas at 11:11 AM on December 12, 2021

Check out The Believer.
posted by Mid at 11:13 AM on December 12, 2021

Parabola.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:14 AM on December 12, 2021

The American Prospect.
posted by Ardea alba at 11:36 AM on December 12, 2021

The Oxford American is worth a look.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:48 AM on December 12, 2021

The Baffler.
posted by miles per flower at 11:55 AM on December 12, 2021

We read/subscribe to a lot of the magazines you listed and also subscribe to High Country News.
posted by stellaluna at 11:56 AM on December 12, 2021

This sounds like a job for The New York Review, but be sure whatever sub option you might choose includes access to the archives, which are fabulous.

The London Review of Books is also great and would suffice.
posted by jamjam at 12:11 PM on December 12, 2021

Just as a heads up, The Believer is reportedly shutting down.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:14 PM on December 12, 2021

Are you specifically looking for printed matter, or would a digital subscription work?

Mother Jones and the Guardian Weekly may already be included by your "etc," but if not, are worth a look. Also, if your recipient lives in the same city as listed in your profile, there's a surprisingly good local free weekly that recently started offering delivery subscriptions. But, it's very locally focused and less polished.
posted by eotvos at 12:14 PM on December 12, 2021

The Point
posted by 15L06 at 12:23 PM on December 12, 2021

I quite enjoy Delayed Gratification. Quarterly, if that's relevant.
posted by myotahapea at 12:35 PM on December 12, 2021

We get the Sunday only New York Times delivered and it's a treat every week. Or maybe an Audm subscription.
posted by katieanne at 12:39 PM on December 12, 2021

https://thesunmagazine.org/?
posted by Phyllis keeps a tight rein at 12:42 PM on December 12, 2021

High country news is great, especially if the giftee lives in the west. I’d also recommend the English edition of Le Monde Diplo. One well done issue a month.
posted by congen at 1:03 PM on December 12, 2021

Seconding the Oxford American and The Baffler.

I subscribe to Bitch (quarterly, feminist responses to pop culture) and The Nib (quarterly, comic/graphic, themed anthology issues). I've subscribed to Jacobin and Adbusters in the past.

Granta, The Paris Review, and Lapham's Quarterly are all still around. So's The Nation.
posted by box at 1:23 PM on December 12, 2021

Is Granta still well-regarded?
posted by wenestvedt at 2:15 PM on December 12, 2021

You might want to check out the VIDA count, which tallies the number of woman, nonbinary and trans authors getting published in literary and general-interest magazines. The latest count was 2019, and it surfaces some smaller periodicals doing wonderful work on multiple levels (and highlights the habitual failures of the LRB, Harpers, and the Atlantic to publish anything even close to a representative sample of voices).

Also, I have been reading Granta for years and still love it.
posted by minervous at 2:36 PM on December 12, 2021

Nthing The Nation, which has a lot of good writers and writing.
posted by holborne at 2:40 PM on December 12, 2021

N+1 is dope.
posted by youarenothere at 2:43 PM on December 12, 2021

The Bitter Southerner
posted by hydropsyche at 2:46 PM on December 12, 2021

Stack for the surprise element.
posted by dobbs at 3:00 PM on December 12, 2021

All good suggestions above, but my vote is for The Missouri Review.
posted by cyndigo at 3:06 PM on December 12, 2021

National Geographic?
posted by watrlily at 6:08 PM on December 12, 2021

Washington Monthly. Focused on policy, not politics.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:43 PM on December 12, 2021

Oxford American is a quarterly about culture in the South.
posted by Leontine at 6:58 PM on December 12, 2021

I read all those, but the only subscription on my xmas list is for Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study. Not a traditional magazine, but definitely in your content wheelhouse. She’ll even give you a little PDF to print out for the stocking.
posted by Concordia at 6:35 AM on December 13, 2021

The Times Literary Supplement is very wonderful, a different beast entirely from the actual broadsheet.
posted by guessthis at 9:08 AM on December 13, 2021

In These Times has excellent labor reporting, and I have been a happy subscriber ever since they advertised a free subscription for union members following the Janus case.
posted by mostly vowels at 7:06 PM on December 13, 2021

Nthing the Oxford American. Generally quality writing every issue, _plus_ you get the music issue (usually with CD) which is worth the annual subscription all by itself, in my opinion).
posted by TimHare at 6:03 PM on December 14, 2021

Too late for Christmas, but if anyone is following this, check out The Walrus.
posted by Frenchy67 at 10:00 AM on January 3, 2022