The Writer 11.2019

30 | The Writer • November 2019

broad-interest successes of the past.

“I’ve heard editors say they want to

be the next Paris Review. The problem

with that is not even the Paris Review

could be the next Paris Review – there’s

no longer a climate for that type of lit-

erary magazine or model,” says David

Olimpio, editor-in-chief and owner of

the Atticus Review.

Magazines have to get creative to

make money. For instance, EVENT

offers a reading service for writers,

assessing the strengths and weak-

nesses of a work for $100. Editor

Shashi Bat says EVENT also generates

revenue by holding workshops and

multi-day festivals.

Independent magazines often rely on

their owners or founders for funding

when they go into the red. “We went

through those years of not really being

sure we’d exist from one issue to the

next. We’d have to pool our money –

‘OK, we all owe $275 to have it printed.’

There was really no other way to get the

money,” says Barrelhouse’s D a v e H o u s -

ley. He’s been with the title in various

roles since its founding in 2004 and

now organizes the conferences, which

Barrelhouse initiated to get a new

stream of income.

Charging for submissions and con-

tests has become a way to balance sub-

scription losses for many magazines. Yet

R.I.P.: Lessons from two

high-profile closures

Karen Russell. Colson Whitehead. Stephen King. Ursula K. Le

Guin. Tin House magazine published so many luminaries dur-

ing its 20-year run, which wrapped with this year’s summer

issue. When Tin House publisher and editor Win McCormack

announced the shutdown in December, the literary commu-

nity groaned and mourned. But a number of high-profile titles

have closed in recent years, including Glimmer Train, which

also published its final issue this year. Here are four things we

can glean from these closures.

1. Big names don’t trans-
   late into big profits. Even
   with it high-profile author-
   ship, Tin House cited
   financial pressures for its
   closure.


2. Taking chances can work.
   Tin House gained literary
   stardom while publishing
   many marginalized voices –
   and occasionally rejecting
   well-established authors
   like Günter Grass.


3. People notice and grieve
   these closures. Glimmer
   Train received many, many

emails from writers upon

announcing its final issue.

Lots of them had never

been published in the

magazine.

4. Sometimes you just need
   a break. The two-sister
   team behind Glimmer Train
   did all the work them-
   selves, reading thousands
   of submissions each year
   for almost three decades.
   Linda Swanson-Davies
   says while it sounds like a
   cliché, she and her sister
   simply wanted to spend
   time with their families.

THE HISTORY

OF LITERARY

MAGAZINES

Magazines have existed for
roughly 400 years, says Travis
Kurowski, Ph.D., editor of
Paper Dreams: Writers and
Editors on the American Lit-
erary Magazine. Literary
magazines began publishing
in the 19th century in the
United States.
Early publications were
“genteel male white affairs,”
he says, showcasing authors
such as Henry James, James
Joyce, and Thomas Harding.
In the mid-20th century, this
changed a bit. The advent of
mimeograph presses made
magazine printing more
accessible. Universities
started publishing literary
magazines, most notably
LSU and Kenyon College.
These magazines ran sub-
missions from women and
people of color.
The late ‘90s brought lit-
erary magazines into the
digital age and saw a further
expansion of the genre.
Kurowski estimates there
are 6,000 online and print
publications today.