Best English-language print lierary journal?
August 24, 2008 12:00 PM Subscribe
What's the best English-language print literary journal going these days?
Otherwise it's just Name Your Favorite Band/Book/Color.
I'll add mine: the believer.
posted by krautland at 12:39 PM on August 24, 2008
I'll add mine: the believer.
posted by krautland at 12:39 PM on August 24, 2008
The Virginia Quarterly Review is damn good.
posted by HotPatatta at 12:41 PM on August 24, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by HotPatatta at 12:41 PM on August 24, 2008 [1 favorite]
Slayer/HHGTG/blew, a.k.a.
Zoetrope All-Story.
posted by TheManChild2000 at 12:42 PM on August 24, 2008
Zoetrope All-Story.
posted by TheManChild2000 at 12:42 PM on August 24, 2008
n +1 is also quite good.
posted by chicainthecity at 1:03 PM on August 24, 2008
posted by chicainthecity at 1:03 PM on August 24, 2008
Best? Perhaps that is a matter of opinion.
NonthelessI would like to recommend you the ones that I have been subscribing to for a while now. First the biweekly New York Review of Books which is perhaps as much a journal of well-informed advice to the US administration as a literary magazine. But good. Then its marsupial offspring now fully grown, The London Review of Books. A slimmer effort all together but with the advantage (for me) of an english perspective on literary matters. Dont forget to check out the personal columns in the back pages. Then for even more of a english slant plus a wider coverage of such fields as poetry, religion,politics (older), history, philosophy etc the weekly Times Literary Supplement. There are of course countless others specialising in certain fields. Welsh poetry anyone?. But these three fill so much of my time that I hardly have a moment for the actual books. After a summer of growing vegetables and working as a cook on my holiday island I have a backlog of literary journalism to wade through. Hope I catch up before next summer.
posted by jan murray at 1:24 PM on August 24, 2008 [1 favorite]
NonthelessI would like to recommend you the ones that I have been subscribing to for a while now. First the biweekly New York Review of Books which is perhaps as much a journal of well-informed advice to the US administration as a literary magazine. But good. Then its marsupial offspring now fully grown, The London Review of Books. A slimmer effort all together but with the advantage (for me) of an english perspective on literary matters. Dont forget to check out the personal columns in the back pages. Then for even more of a english slant plus a wider coverage of such fields as poetry, religion,politics (older), history, philosophy etc the weekly Times Literary Supplement. There are of course countless others specialising in certain fields. Welsh poetry anyone?. But these three fill so much of my time that I hardly have a moment for the actual books. After a summer of growing vegetables and working as a cook on my holiday island I have a backlog of literary journalism to wade through. Hope I catch up before next summer.
posted by jan murray at 1:24 PM on August 24, 2008 [1 favorite]
My sister publishes Fence, so I am duty-bound to think it's the best.
posted by nicwolff at 3:04 PM on August 24, 2008
posted by nicwolff at 3:04 PM on August 24, 2008
Well, what do you like? I'm a big fan of The Believer, but they don't publish fiction, so that might not be your best bet. I like journals that carry a bit of everything, so I pick up The New Yorker, VQR, Oxford American, Tin House, Fence, Ploughshares, and The Paris Review whenever new issues come out.
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 3:32 PM on August 24, 2008
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 3:32 PM on August 24, 2008
i third the believer. it's on, folks!
posted by binocularfight at 5:52 PM on August 24, 2008
posted by binocularfight at 5:52 PM on August 24, 2008
Another hand raised here for The Believer! I'm not someone who often buys magazines, but besides snapping up every new issue of the magazine since I found out about it, I've been ordering stacks of back issues. It's a fantastically satisfying publication.
posted by oulipian at 8:53 PM on August 24, 2008
posted by oulipian at 8:53 PM on August 24, 2008
Brick is what you want if what you want is literary non-fiction. It's a consistently stunning collection of ideas, comes out only twice a year (so you look forward to it more like a book than like a magazine—it marks the changing of the seasons for me) and covers the gamut: journals, memoirs, essays, interviews, from living and dead writers. You can't go wrong. But don't just take my word for it.
For short fiction, I've also just discovered Zoetrope: All-Story, already suggested above, and really savoured each story in the issue. I'll be a subscriber to that one soon.
posted by roombythelake at 9:02 PM on August 24, 2008 [1 favorite]
For short fiction, I've also just discovered Zoetrope: All-Story, already suggested above, and really savoured each story in the issue. I'll be a subscriber to that one soon.
posted by roombythelake at 9:02 PM on August 24, 2008 [1 favorite]
I recently subscribed to Fray and its first issue is hilarious (stories about getting busted), as is their "special issue" (collections of stories about animals/pets). Fray used to just be an online collection of stories (all the stories are accompanied with interesting layouts and beautiful artwork; here are some archives).
I have the most recent copy of Believer; I read the Murakami article and listened to the music.
Also, I bought The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, put together by the folks at Creative Nonfiction.
posted by Korou at 10:08 PM on August 24, 2008
I have the most recent copy of Believer; I read the Murakami article and listened to the music.
Also, I bought The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, put together by the folks at Creative Nonfiction.
posted by Korou at 10:08 PM on August 24, 2008
I still like The Paris Review and Granta. Zoetrope and that newsletter from the folks at The Dalkey Archive are cool too. And it's NOT entirely English language, which is the point, but I really like the idea behind Circumference.
posted by ifjuly at 1:26 PM on August 25, 2008
posted by ifjuly at 1:26 PM on August 25, 2008
Virginia Quarterly Review, Granta. Going further afield, The Idler.
posted by lukemeister at 7:55 AM on August 26, 2008
posted by lukemeister at 7:55 AM on August 26, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by languagehat at 12:22 PM on August 24, 2008