Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the 23rd Read Harder task.

I'll probably go with The Hudson Review.

I believe Weird Tales just came back again, so I will probably go with that (or pull out an old back issue of it)

Thought this might be helpful https://www.everywritersresource.com/...

I'm going to read an issue of Uncanny Magazine. Probably Uncanny Magazine Issue 15: March/April 2017

Do libraries lend out issue of literary magazines? Or do you pretty much have to buy a copy?

Chrissy, most libraries have litmags to read on site, and many litmags are available online. None of my 3 libraries (I have 2 homes and I work for a university) had litmags for online lending.

Uncanny magazine has full issues online, which is why I selected one of them for this prompt

The Pulp Magazine project has a bunch of issues of old ones online for free as well

I'm confused by this prompt. I thought we were reading books, but this is a magazine? I need some more clarification, not to mention where can I get them for my Kindle? Thank you.

Therese wrote: "I'm confused by this prompt. I thought we were reading books, but this is a magazine? I need some more clarification, not to mention where can I get them for my Kindle? Thank you."

It's a reading challenge, so though it's mostly books they also include other reading mediums such as comics, graphic novels, picture books, audiobooks, etc. This one happens to be a magazine.

There's a magazine section in the Kindle store. If you have prime, they offer some included in that membership, otherwise you can do a trial subscription or buy a single issue of one that fits.

Okay. Thank you. I have prime so I should be able to find something. I might even figure out what I'm looking for!

Here is a listing...
1 New Yorker. Since 1925 this magazine has published some of the best writers in the country.
2 Ploughshares. Founded in 1971 Ploughshares is our best and highest ranked university non-commercial literary magazine.
3 Paris Review
4 Tin House
5 New England Review
6 Granta
7 Harper's Magazine
8 Kenyon Review

I have read some New Yorker and Harper's Magazine articles in the past , but have always wondered about Ploughshares... I will probably read from it.

There’s a magazine app that you can connect to your library account (RBdigital). Pretty sure they have the New Yorker.

I’m going to read a McSweeney’s!

I may read an issue of the New Yorker or Granta since they're the easiest for me to get physical copies of (which I prefer), but I may finally splurge and buy a copy of one of the SFF mags I've enjoyed stories from online.

The https://tahomaliteraryreview.com/. Plus there’s a SoundCloud account, where you can listen to the journal’s contributors read their work: https://soundcloud.com/tahomaliterary

Therese wrote: "I'm confused by this prompt. I thought we were reading books, but this is a magazine? I need some more clarification, not to mention where can I get them for my Kindle? Thank you."

A literary journal is essentially an anthology of short stories, creative nonfiction (essays), and poetry. So a book. Here's an example of a literary journal you can get on your Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Tahoma-Literar...

Ann wrote: "Therese wrote: "I'm confused by this prompt. I thought we were reading books, but this is a magazine? I need some more clarification, not to mention where can I get them for my Kindle? Thank you."
..."

Thank you so much. This will work perfectly. I appreciate is more than you will know!

I subscribe to n+1 and Calyx and have a bit of a backlog of Fourth Genre, River Teeth, and Ploughshares on my shelves from my grad school days. There are TONS of literary magazines out there, focused on a wide variety of genres and forms, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find something of interest. A few off the top of my head: The Nib Magazine (comics), Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons (both sci-fi), Fourth Genre and River Teeth (both nonfiction), Entropy (a bit of everything), Brevity (flash nonfiction), etc.

I'm thinking probably Meanjin.

I’ll keep this task simple and go with The New Yorker.

I've been meaning to check out FIYAH Literary Magazine for a while, so this seems like a good time for it. They sell individual PDF/Epub issues on their website for $4 each.

Lightspeed Magazine has a few great additions. I might read their Women Destroy Fantasy or Queers Destroy Fantasy special additions I think. They also have science fiction and horror versions of those

Does The New Yorker count?

I am going with Zoetrope: All-Story, McSweeney's or the Paris Review.

I am going with The New York Review of Books or Uncanny Magazine.

I think I might read The Deaf Poets Society, Issue 4: Crips in Space. The concept is awesome and the PDF is available to download for free from their website.

I was at a bookstore today and picked up the most recent issue of Harvard Review, which I will probably use for this task.

I found Sucker Literary Magazine online. It's all YA stories and it's included in Kindle Unlimited.

https://smile.amazon.com/Sucker-Liter...

Would Readers Digest count?

I subscribed to McSweeney's because I've always wanted to and I'll be damned if it didn't have the highest VIDA count of any literary magazine in 2018. BOOM!
https://www.vidaweb.org/the-count/the...

Interesting news about the VIDA count.

Book Riot from some time ago: https://bookriot.com/2018/06/19/2017-...

The Sun is an excellent literary magazine. I highly recommend it! Definitely worth a subscription:

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/

I’ll be selecting a piece from World Literature Today. Love this publication! https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/

I love this one! Literary mags are in dire need of some love, so if you can, do consider purchasing a single copy (or even a full subscription). One of the best, Tin House, had to fold this past year and I'm still not over it.

And if you want to expand out even further than the US, you can find some English and bilingual lit journals here (it's an older post, but most of these are still active): WashingtonSquareReview

Tamara wrote: "I love this one! Literary mags are in dire need of some love, so if you can, do consider purchasing a single copy (or even a full subscription). One of the best, Tin House, had to fold this past year and I'm still not over it."

What a shame! I just got a collection of short stories published by Tin House, and I was looking forward to finding others.

Marie wrote: "Tamara wrote: "I love this one! Literary mags are in dire need of some love, so if you can, do consider purchasing a single copy (or even a full subscription). One of the best, Tin House, had to fo..."

Oh, Tin House Books and Tin House Workshops are still going, but the lit mag folded. You can read more about it here.

For this one I'm going with Fiyah which is a lit magazine for speculative fiction about and by Black people. The issue I'm getting is called Hair and from looking at the previews of the stories, I'm super excited to start reading it!

I'm totally new to reading lit magazines- does this count?
http://www.destroysf.com/

I was captured by this paragraph on the site: The People of Colo(u)r Destroy special issues exist to relieve a brokenness in the genre that’s been enabled time and time again by favoring certain voices and portrayals of particular characters. We’re bringing together a mix of all-POC editorial and creative voices from around the globe to present science fiction that is colored by the nuances of culture, race, and history. It’s science fiction for our present time—but most of all, our future.

Okay, I'm going to speak here as an editor of both literary and genre fiction, which require different approaches for both writer and editor. Now I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from reading and buying magazines, but understand that a 'literary magazine' is a specific kind of thing. Horror/sci-fi/fantasy tend to be a separate kind of writing, and although they can and do overlap with literary--Gaiman, Le Guin, Dyck, for example--not all magazines with stories in them are considered 'literary magazines.' I've worked for a range of publications, and the lit mag is a very specific beast.

Another idea:

https://www.freemansbiannual.com/issues

I forgot that I have their issue on "Home" on my Kindle.

One thing I came across is Conjunctions (Bard College’s literary journal). It's available in digital, and each issue (about 400 pages) is on a theme. 63: Speaking Volumes, 67: Other Aliens, 70: Sanctuary, and 72: Nocturnals all sound intriguing, and some of the writers are well known (Joyce Carol Oates, Karen Russell, John Crowley, etc)

Margaret wrote: "I highly recommend The Georgia Review, edited by Gerald Maa. My daughter works for them, so I have a subscription. Every issue features wonderful art as well as a wide variety of w..."

My daughter is an intern for the Georgia Review! I do love this magazine!

Last year, I discovered a number of Irish writers I really like: Sally Rooney, Anna Burns, Anne Griffin. So, I will read Granta 135: New Irish Writing from 2016 or an issue of an Irish literary magazine like The Stinging Fly or The Dublin Review. More listed here: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...

Tamara wrote: "Okay, I'm going to speak here as an editor of both literary and genre fiction, which require different approaches for both writer and editor. Now I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from reading and..."

There are a number of definitions of the word 'literary' (the earliest being simply 'of or pertaining to alphabetic letters'). Literary fiction and literary magazines are using two different definitions of the same word. (Another use is 'literary agent' -- and I can assure everyone that writers of genre fiction who are publishing traditionally have literary agents). So, genre literary magazines are a thing and are more than covered by the definition of this task.

But don't take my word for it. Poets and Writers, a major organization for writers, has a database of literary magazines--including categories of genre fiction.

https://www.pw.org/literary_magazines

(Their database is aimed at helping writers find places to sell their works, but it could be used to look for magazines to read if you don't mind the extraneous extra information)

Stephen wrote: "Tamara wrote: "Okay, I'm going to speak here as an editor of both literary and genre fiction, which require different approaches for both writer and editor. Now I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone f..."

Thanks for saying this, Stephen! The P&W database is a great resource.

I was nonfiction editor at a literary magazine that published a wide variety of genres and forms ("literary" fiction, speculative fiction, memoir, cultural criticism, humor, comics, poetry, pieces of writing that landed between genres, etc.). The lit mag is not, in fact, a very specific beast. Literary magazines come in all stripes and can fall into almost any imaginable niche. Some publish a bit of everything and some are hyper-specialized. Some are invested in perpetuating specific definitions of the words "literature" and "literary," while others have made it their project to expand those definitions.

It strikes me as deeply silly for anyone to authoritatively insist that one specific kind of literary magazine is the Correct Type. It's a big tent. There's plenty of room.

Well, I think I've been misunderstood. Nevertheless, your points are all well-taken.

Edited to add: Here's an oldie-but-a-goodie interview between Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro on the subject: New Statesman 2015

Putting in a plug for my friend’s magazine SLICE- https://slicemagazine.org/magazine/

They focus on emerging writers, and SLICE as a whole is a nonprofit bridging the gap between emerging writers and the publishing world.

SLICE looks like a good read! Thanks for recommendation

Stephanie wrote: "For this one I'm going with Fiyah which is a lit magazine for speculative fiction about and by Black people. The issue I'm getting is called Hair and from looking at the previews of the stories, I'..."

I just downloaded the most recent issue and it is GOOD. Thanks for the recommendation!