The Writer 11.2019

(Ron) #1

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.


  1. 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.

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