Merry Wanderer of the Night:
literary magazine

The essay editor of Wag's Revue came to talk to my literary magazine publishing class today and I was impressed by how sizable the magazine's nonfiction section was. I've been browsing small lit mags for awhile and it seems like most of them throw nonfiction in as an afterthought. Wag's Revue seems to have a few essays in each issue, and they can all be read online. There is a short essay called Birdwatching in Fresno by Steven Church in issue seven which is very representative of poetical nonfiction writing. I've written several recent posts about misconceptions concerning nonfiction (like my last Sunday Salon, and Birdwatching in Fresno really pushes the definition of "essay."

"The bird doesn't suspect and won't chase what doesn't move, what has only recently roosted, relocated, separated and plugged into the seismic shifts of jobs and geography. And he cannot know how you feel caged by the noise, pressed and petrified like the prairie dogs back home in Kansas who duck back into their holes when a raptor glides over the flats--even though you've done nothing wrong, nothing but act like a prairie dog scratching in the yard."

This passage really struck me because I'm attracted to language that deals with nature but also has a dark edge to it. This piece is very short so it's heavy while you're reading it but once you've finished there is a sense of relief. I liked this essay because it illustrates how essays can be topical while still being literary. If this wasn't labeled as essay I'm not sure most people would give it that label, particularly readers who don't think they like essays. If you were convinced by my post last week and want to try an essay Birdwatching in Fresno might be a quick one to see how essays are different from their common perception.

Even if you're not interested in the essay you should certainly check out Wag's Revue. It's an online only literary magazine and there is actually some quality writing in it, which is surprising to me after perusing several small online literary magazines. If you love blogging and reading but don't have a lot of experience with literary magazines this would be a good place to get started.

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After spending a lot of time listening to panels about the future of books today I thought it was only fitting to talk about an essay I read (in an issue of Creative Nonfiction I got at the Twin Cities Book Festival) about what publishing will look like in 2025. In number 31 of the literary magazine Creative Nonfiction essayists wrote on the topic Writing and Publishing in 2015 and Beyond. Phillip Lopate, the man who edited the anthology The Art of the Personal Essay titled his predictions The Best of Times, Worst of Times. One of his most interesting ideas is bringing old authors back from the dead, and in doing this he predicts they'll produce nothing more than boring biographies full of their regrets. You can read a portion of this short essay on Creative Nonfiction's website.

Lopate also predicts that the physical book will continue to exist, but that the industry will be full of experimentation. One example is the book-lozenge, "which dissolved novella-sized works on the tongue, not to mention the book-shot, devised for cultivated diabetics who requested a literary does with their daily injections." Can you imagine being given an entire book through candy? I think it might be fun to try every once in awhile, but I wouldn't want it to replace books. What does that say about our culture? That we'd rather be fed culture than experience it?

I'm really interested to hear what other people think about Lopate's predictions and what all of you think might happen in the book industry by 2025. A more serious suggestion made by Jeff Kamin at the Twin Cities Book Festival today was offering paperback books with the hardcovers simply because people will probably buy the book sooner. I think this is a really good idea and a lot of us agreed on that today.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.