Five New Online Magazines You Should Read

I’m not sure when it happened, but online literary magazines have become a lot like food trucks in Los Angeles. They are popping up everywhere and some of the new ones are deliciously inventive. Below are five new online magazines you should check out.

– Martin Ott

Jam Tarts – Hot off its debut issue, Jam Tarts Magazine has delivered one of the best online debuts in recent memory. Very rarely does a new lit mag dial in such a compelling mix of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art so quickly. The intent of the magazine is to “question taste” and in doing so delivered some delicious appetizers and entrees from writers such as Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Rachel DeWoskin, Rose Lambert-Sluder, and Richard Hoffman.

The Offing – Promoted as a channel for the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Offing is an online literary magazine publishing creative writing in all genres and art in all media. Its mission is to publish work that challenges, experiments, and provokes, and it actively seeks work from those often marginalized in literary conversation. Representative writers include Juan Felipe Herrera, Maruan Paschen, Matthew Rohrer, and Alissa Quart.

Okey-Panky – Early this year the fine folk from Electric Literature began delivering a weekly online magazine of short, darkly comic, ironic, and experimental fiction, essay, poetry, and graphic narrative. Authors include Heather Altfield, Stephen Dixon, Anne Gisleson, Mark Halliday, and Sharma Shields.

Prelude Magazine – Launching in September of last year, Prelude is a journal of poetry and criticism based in New York and has quickly become one of my favorites. The format is both print and online, with work available on the website. Old guard poets such as John Ashbery mix elbows with the likes of Mira Gonzalez and Michael Robbins, and new work is published monthly.

Then and If – Jessie Carty, the founding editor of Referential Magazine, is back with another interactive online magazine Then and If. The mag is in a laid-back tumblr format and encourages writers and artists to engage with work in the magazine and if they like it then to submit a response in multiple formats (text, photo, video) and in any genre (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, comic, stage/screen). A poem by Amorak Huey kicked off the magazine a couple of weeks ago.

Map Literary – On the Map of Online Literary Magazines

As we have seen some of our best literary magazines move online or create online editions, the launch of some of the best new literary magazines have occurred in the online space.

There are some of the newer  online magazines I read for poetry like Plume or short fiction like Joyland, but there is one magazine that I follow each issue in equal parts for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art: Map Literary.

The Spring 2014 issue is no except. Work of interest includes poetry by Simeon Berry, the short story Your Hands by Scottish writer Halsted M. Bernard, and artwork from the Ark Codex from Calamari Press. 

The magazine is affiliated with the English Department of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences at the William Paterson University of New Jersey, but the accomplished editors, with a track record of publishing success, imbue the magazine with a modern aesthetic and content that combines artistry and relevance.

This is one magazine to put on your lit mag roadmap.

– Martin Ott