Jul 10, 2008

Weekly Geeks #10


I have not participated in Weekly Geeks as much as I would have hoped, but lives get in the way sometimes. Anyway, I decided to post on this week's topic: The Magazines We Read

Here's the rules:

For each magazine you want to talk about, here are a few questions. Answer as many or as few as you want.

1. Name of magazine.
2. Do you subscribe or just buy it now and then?
3. What’s your favorite regular feature in the magazine?
4. What do you think your interest in this magazine says about you?
5. How long have you been reading this magazine?
6. Is there any unique or quirky aspect to the magazine that keeps you reading?

So here it goes:


1. Writer's Digest

I have subscribed to this magazine off and on, mostly on since I was a pre-teen. I've been writing even longer than that. What this magazine says about me is that writing is an important part of me. I love the monthly contests with sentence prompts and the feature articles, which can vary from novel writing tips to whether an MFA is worth it.

2. Poetry

I'm a poet who has subscribed to this poetry journal for about three years now. I love the poems in it, though the translation issue sometimes falls flat for me. I love reading the latest poems from people we know, like Billy Collins, but also from people I don't know.

3. Poets & Writers

I have had a love hate relationship with this magazine throughout the last eight years. i subscribe and unsubscribe, but currently, the editor is on target with me. The latest issue is about summer reading. What's great about this magazine is that it is not only about writing, it's also about the latest books, poetry or fiction, that are out on the market and what living poets and writers have to say about their craft and the state of literature and publishing today. What this says about me is that I enjoy reading as much as writing, and that I am concerned about the state of the literature and the market.

4. AGNI

This literary journal is part of my own private war. I've always wanted to be published in this journal to prove a point to an old professor of mine, but thus far, it has not happened. I have subscribed to it for a couple of years at a time, but mostly I just buy it in the bookstore once in a while. I continue to look through it to find my niche. I will win this battle some day.

5. The Virginia Quarterly Review

This is a journal that I have not subscribed to, and will probably continue to just pick up when I find an interesting issue in the bookstore. I'm not sure what it says about me, but I have read issues over the last five years. This is the journal that published the "lost" poem of Robert Frost in 2006.

I'm sure there are other magazines and journals that I have forgotten about because I only get them sporadically when they have an interesting issue that I happen upon in the bookstore.

What magazines and journals are you reading?

4 comments:

Anna said...

I pretty much just read Writer's Digest in terms of magazines. I don't like Poets & Writers and haven't yet found a journal that really speaks to me.

I hope you win the AGNI war someday!

Serena said...

Poets and writers under this new editor has been better. That's why I subscribed.

AGNI! ARGH!

Anna said...

You'll have to let me check out one of your most recent issues. I couldn't stomach that magazine anymore so I let my subscription lapse a long time ago.

Serena said...

Yeah I have a love-hate relationship with Poets and Writers. I have not read the latest issue yet. Its on summer reading.

Ferlinghetti was in one of the Poets & Writers issues...that's how I found him.