Ever since our current call opened, we’ve had a great collection of magazines submitted alongside an especially strong set of short stories and poems. There will be a full post-mortem of the experiment once we decide on the content for the issue but, if you’re looking for literary magazine inspiration in the meantime, here are some recommendations from the Structo team:
Euan recommends: Popshot—A beautifully illustrated magazine, consistently full of strong, interesting writing; Firewords Quarterly—A relatively new magazine, now on its fourth issue. Punches way above its weight; Ambit—It’s been around since 1959 and is now on its 221st issue, but still feels fresh; Versal—Based in Amsterdam, and deeply rooted in its community, Versal is about to come back from its publishing hiatus. Expect it to kick the doors down; Birkensnake—This is a wonderfully produced magazine full of brilliantly off-kilter content; Barrelhouse—Irreverent and excellent.
Dave recommends: McSweeney’s—It’s gorgeous. Otherwise Stand, Envoi, Magma Poetry and The North.
Christine recommends: Cream City Review, out of Milwaukee, WI in the United States—I’m biased for mine, as the university there is my alma mater. The magazine has a great Midwestern flare.
Claire recommends: Echolocation from the University of Toronto.
Will recommends: Archipelago—Setting out from the imagination of editor and poet Andrew McNeillie, Archipelago is a beautifully crafted magazine with a natural bent and also a list of contributors that reads like a who’s who of British and Irish literature from the last twenty years. Belleville Park Pages—I picked one of these up in Shakespeare and Co. [in Paris] a year or so ago and instantly thought what a great idea it was. The writing is as laudable as the premise – a work of literature for less than the price of a pint. And they’re lovely boys that make it, too.