Sunday, January 10, 2010
Journal Transience
I was looking at the acknowledgments page of Torched Verse Ends, and by my count at least five of the journals I placed individual poems in are already defunct (Cranky, Diner, three candles, Unloved Mail Order Bride, and Unpleasant Event Schedule). Plus, the journal I edited for a good portion of time while I was producing the poems, The Eleventh Muse, is either defunct or might as well be. Beyond that, a ton of the journals that were generally prominent and well regarded when I first started trying to publish poetry are gone too: Chelsea, Grand Street, Partisan Review, Ontario Review, etc. And now many university reviews are in danger: New England Review, Triquarterly, The Southern Review, etc. Is there a lesson in that impermanence, especially considering that we're clearly publishing in the age of obsolescence for the print book? I don't know. Maybe it's just that if you're really a writer, you enjoy that publication when it happens, but then consider it over and move right on to writing your next thing. Maybe something actually deep that I haven't thought of yet. What do you think?
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The vast majority of poetry and other literary magazines that have started up over the past couple of hundred years are no longer publishing. Long before anyone heard of the internet, or computers, a typical print poetry magazine might last two or three or four issues and then go dormant or vanish. The exceptional ones have lasted a few decades.
If you look through (for instance) the annual Poets' Market, in the cases where the listings give the year the magazine first published, it's unusual to find ones that have kept going for more than ten or twenty years, and I'd guess no more than a dozen have published unbroken for multiple decades. I think there are one or two (supported by universities) that have published since the 1800's.
Certainly most of the magazines I've published in over the years are no longer around. A few are. Some that were print-only are now online-only, or a little of each.
Most of the poetry magazines that stick around either have the backing of universities, or are the project of one or two editors who are able to fund them from day job incomes (maybe with help from friends and supporters here and there once in a while), who care deeply about getting the poetry out into the world and don't care much about the competitiveness of the "market."
Or the extreme rare case of Poetry magazine in Chicago, which pressed on doggedly for decades scraping the funds from who knows where, long after the death of the founding editor and publisher, and then a few years back got a windfall megadonation from a wealthy person that (maybe) will keep them in operation indefinitely, if they don't try anything too risky with the money.
Print books are not obsolete, though there are predatory operators in the "marketplace" who are trying to make them extinct.
My feeling is that in thinking about all of this, a couple of central questions to ask are, who holds political and economic power, and in whose interests are they using that power?
The possible answers to these questions suggest, to me, possible answers (or at least paths to explore) for some of the questions you raise here.
If you look through (for instance) the annual Poets' Market, in the cases where the listings give the year the magazine first published, it's unusual to find ones that have kept going for more than ten or twenty years, and I'd guess no more than a dozen have published unbroken for multiple decades. I think there are one or two (supported by universities) that have published since the 1800's.
Certainly most of the magazines I've published in over the years are no longer around. A few are. Some that were print-only are now online-only, or a little of each.
Most of the poetry magazines that stick around either have the backing of universities, or are the project of one or two editors who are able to fund them from day job incomes (maybe with help from friends and supporters here and there once in a while), who care deeply about getting the poetry out into the world and don't care much about the competitiveness of the "market."
Or the extreme rare case of Poetry magazine in Chicago, which pressed on doggedly for decades scraping the funds from who knows where, long after the death of the founding editor and publisher, and then a few years back got a windfall megadonation from a wealthy person that (maybe) will keep them in operation indefinitely, if they don't try anything too risky with the money.
Print books are not obsolete, though there are predatory operators in the "marketplace" who are trying to make them extinct.
My feeling is that in thinking about all of this, a couple of central questions to ask are, who holds political and economic power, and in whose interests are they using that power?
The possible answers to these questions suggest, to me, possible answers (or at least paths to explore) for some of the questions you raise here.
I think it's also important to acknowledge economics here. I've only recently enjoyed a stable income that allows me to support the print journals I admire. Many of the people reading these journals and publishing in them are young/emerging writers, often living on a shoestring budget. I was often told that as a writer I had an obligation to support the journals I wanted to publish in, but sometimes that just wasn't feasible.
One of the things I like about online publishing is the accessibility and relatively inexpensive means of getting the work out there.
Granted, in both cases, libraries play a key role in subscribing to print journals and offering internet access to those on the lower end of the pay scale.
I also agree with Lyle about the history of journals coming and going. I'm not sure this is a problem per se.
One of the things I like about online publishing is the accessibility and relatively inexpensive means of getting the work out there.
Granted, in both cases, libraries play a key role in subscribing to print journals and offering internet access to those on the lower end of the pay scale.
I also agree with Lyle about the history of journals coming and going. I'm not sure this is a problem per se.
I sure didn't say it was a problem, just a fact. Lyle, the print book will be obsolete except as hard copy archive within our lifetimes. It is obsolescent right now. Don't know what to tell you on that score.
Unloved Mail-Order Bride will actually make a comeback, but my server/hosting/semi-web person has infos that I need and for immigration purposes I wasn't allowed to be working on it.
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