Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

"mslexia 70"

An 84-page A4 magazine for "women who write" with a focus on the UK scene. Small text, so that there's lots to read. There are about 15 pages of poems/stories. Mostly it's adverts (small ads as early as p.12, showing how integral they are), market information, listings, features and articles. They've opted for many short articles and snippets rather than a few longer pieces. It's all useful for writers who send work away.

The leading article by Debbie Taylor considers the plight of litmags. She points out that Rialto gets 12,000 poems a year and prints 150, that a "combination of passion and (relative, if not outright) poverty is typical of the vast majority of souls working in the litmag sector", that in 2016 about a third of mags were print only, a third were online-only, and the rest were mixes of various proportions, and that the editors' own work often suffers because of time constraints. Granta and The London Magazine have private backing.

No comments:

Post a Comment