Ten years ago, Jeff Sparrow, editor of Overland, which describes itself as Australia’s only radical literary magazine, wrote an article in this newspaper entitled What’s the point of literary magazines? In it, he argued that literary magazines not only promote new writers, but provide a space to publish authors who “have something to say that’s not being heard”. He also acknowledged that they cannot survive on issue sales and subscriptions alone.
This is a discussion that feels more relevant now than ever in the context of the UK’s crumbling literary magazine scene. The White Review, one of the mainstays of the past decade, announced last month that it would cease publishing “for an indefinite period” as it failed to receive Arts Council England funding for three years in a row. The cultural phenomenon that was gal-dem, the magazine by women of colour, which provided a huge amount of literary coverage over the years, closed earlier this year, and the beautifully illustrated literary magazine Popshot Quarterly has announced its move to solely online editions due to “recent increases in production costs” meaning the print issues are “no longer viable”. It is, to say the least, a depressing time to be a fan of literary magazines.
