SHORT literary fiction and critical essays are the publishing world’s equivalent of weapons-grade plutonium. Dense, highly refined, and for all but a professional few, something best avoided. The world’s demand for the stuff is met by a handful of respectable quarterlies, such as the Paris Review and Granta, and countless “little magazines” that publish experimental fiction and serve more as a proving ground for authors than something people actually read.
Yet Uzoamaka Maduka and Jac Mullen, recent Princeton graduates, decided there was space for the American Reader, a new monthly literary magazine aimed at intelligent young people between the ages of 25 and 35. With an initial print run of about 8,000 copies, it will be an order of magnitude larger than a typical debut literary magazine, which would be lucky to crack four digits a year.
Ms Maduka, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, says the American Reader will be devoted solely to literature and literary criticism. This sets it apart from established names such as Harper’s and the New Yorker, which also include reportage. The founders have coaxed Ben Marcus, an American author who once wrote a 13-page defence of “difficult fiction” in Harper’s, to edit the fiction section. Mr Marcus has chosen a trio of stories for the first issue: one from Stephen Dixon, an established novelist, a second from Jason Schwartz, author of "A German Picturesque", and a third from an unpublished writer named Chanelle Benz.
Launching a niche magazine at a time when print media is struggling sounds foolhardy but Ms Maduka is confident the American Reader can flourish. Yet her business plan sounds naive: she says they will make money through subscriptions, advertising, news-stand sales and partnerships with other brands and institutions. The first issue will be out on October 1st and will initially be distributed only in New York. The plan is to expand across the United States and possibly to London by the end of the year. Copies will also be sold online.
