There have been endless debates on the purpose and importance of literary magazines. What can a reader gain from them that they can’t get from books?
This article lists 20 Reasons why one should read Literary Magazines. Some reasons are humorous and amusing, but most deserve emphasis.
Reasons to Read Literary Magazines
Literary magazines are fascinating and inspiring artifacts of literary history.
Aside from genre, literature is organized by historical period, or what is termed as literary history. Literary history classifies literature of different time spans based on their characteristic features. Like fossils, literary magazines are preserved remains of past literary pulse. Literary magazines may also be considered chronicles of literary styles over the years.
Literary magazines are a community of contents.
Writers from different countries, races, educational background, age, and social status converge together and share a common space.
They are little homes for words.
Literary magazines are regular anthologies. They are collections of short works which may or may not be confined by a certain theme or event.
Literary magazines are perfect for teaching.
Teachers and professors can ask their students to read literary magazines to detect themes, learn writing styles, and discover new writers. This enables students to extend their learning outside the classroom.
Literary magazines represent mar-ginalized works.
Because literary magazines are considered a marginalized sector of the literary world, the writers and the works they publish cover ideas from what society considers the unimportant and insignificant, but still worth reading. These magazines give a voice to underrepresented works.
Literary magazines are little books that you don’t read like books.
Readers can pick stories or poems from the table of contents and jump from one article to another, or back.
Literary magazines help sustain the shorter forms of literature.
Hortense Calisher, an American fiction writer, considered short stories as the chamber music of literature. Like chamber music, literary magazines are composed of small ensembles of writers writing in an intimate setting and emphasizing their personal expression.
Literary magazines make small but necessary contribution to the literary world.
They do so by giving birth to and breeding new writers, mostly from colleges and universities.
Literary magazines are good enough for past and present distinguished writers who submitted to them and got published.
For example, Stephen King’s short fiction appeared in several literary magazines. Isn’t that enough reason to read literary magazines?
Literary magazines are where writers publish the work of their hearts and souls: the work they refuse to compromise.
These are stories that do not fit into a certain mold, poems that depict the unusual, words which are expressed freely and (almost) without censure.
The Power and Value of Literary Magazines
Like fiber in garments, power and value are woven into literary magazines, of which significance will resonate and benefit not only the literary world but mankind as well.
And in this day of web publishing, digital literary magazines can be a force to reckon with in terms of wide distribution and ease of use.
My friend, Katie Velez, and I, have recently launched LitArtHub.
LitArtHub (Literature & Art Hub, or also, LAHub) is designed to be a three-dimensional platform for both seasoned and promising writers and other creatives to showcase their craft and talent. This three-dimensional platform includes publishing quality works on our website, in a quarterly digital magazine, and in print.
In general, we welcome submissions of short works of fiction, poetry, photography and creative art that are emotive and compelling.
For our website, submissions will be on-going year-round.
Themed submissions will be called within a specified time for inclusion to our quarterly digital magazine.
Every year, the most popular stories may be picked for print book publication. Special calls for submission may also be announced. (We have just recently closed submissions for an anthology which is now undergoing the editing process.)
Come join us at the Hub!
Want to see my Books? Browse them Here.
