Online Literary Journals: A Status Report

In his article published on Sunday at the Huffington Post, “Online Literary Journals Come of Age: 15 Top Online Journal Editors Speak,” Anis Shivani posed a few questions, including the following: “After at least a decade of sustained presence, what can we say about the status of journals that promote literature online?“ and “Have online journals come of age yet?” As I have indicated on numerous occasions in the past, these questions represent a sampling of those I had hoped someday to see in conversations ever since the initial publication of Valparaiso Poetry Review in October of 1999. In fact, as I previously stated a year and a half ago (“Online Literary Journals: Coming of Age”):

When Valparaiso Poetry Review was begun in 1999, I imagined universal acceptance of online literary journals would take a number of years, and I considered the possibility that a decade might pass before electronic literary magazines would come of age. With the general recognition today, by almost all poets and most short-fiction writers, of such journals as satisfactory locations for publication, as well as the nearly universal presence of print journals in some online form, perhaps the maturation of online journals has happened just as I had hoped would occur.

The editors contacted by Shivani offered various observations and opinions in their responses to the Huffington Post. Rebecca Morgan Frank, editor-in-chief of Memorious: A Journal of New Verse and Fiction, opened with the following:

Yes, online journals have "come of age": we've evolved from being the medium that people did not take seriously, and considered ephemeral, to being an enduring medium that models innovation in the important work of keeping literature relevant and accessible to readers. Print journals are following the lead of online journals by going online-only themselves (Triquarterly, Shenandoah), by having a companion online version with different content (Harvard Review, Agni), or by offering limited content and archives online. Online and print journals are essentially doing the same work: bringing together writers and readers.

Colleen Ryor, founding editor of The Adirondack Review, called attention to the universal availability of work in online journals:

Online literary journals are bringing poetry to a wider, more international audience in a way that would be highly impractical, if not impossible, for print journals to do. Because readers can now print out their favorite poems with the click of a button, and writers can reach a much wider audience than was previously possible, it's difficult for printed journals to compete with that immediacy and convenience.

Gregory Donovan, senior editor at Blackbird, noted that online journals are sometimes at the forefront of breaking literary news:

In 2006, Blackbird offered a previously unpublished sonnet by the young Sylvia Plath, including her typescripts and the annotated page from her own copy of The Great Gatsby which inspired the poem, and not only made international news, but told an important story about how a poet is made, not born. That event helped announce the online journal's arrival as a force to be taken seriously.

Andy Hunter, editor-in-chief at Electric Literature, spoke of the circulation numbers enjoyed by online journals:

The obvious answer to "What are online literary journals doing that print journals are failing to do?" is: reaching thousands of readers. A reasonably successful literary website has a readership of over 10,000; fewer than five print journals in the world have that many readers.

Ravi Shankar, editor at Drunken Boat, commented upon the possibilities of presentation in online journals:

Online, the word, once static and paginated, has morphed into movement and sound, hyperlink and interactivity, changing the experience of reading into something richer and more intertextual.

I am delighted by this attention to online literary journals on a site such as the Huffington Post, which will expand awareness to even more readers. However, those familiar with One Poet’s Notes will recall these questions have been addressed a number of times here. For instance, I again refer visitors to an April 2009 article, “Online Literary Journals: Coming of Age,” and a March 2010 article, “Literary Journals, from Print to Online: An Update.” Indeed, I wrote an introductory piece to the tenth anniversary issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review in October of 2009, “Editor’s Note of Appreciation,” that also remarked upon this issue, as in the following portion from my statement:

I believe most readers of contemporary literature have been amazed in the past decade by the growth in popularity and the increased sophistication level of various online literary journals. I know I admire the wonderful work witnessed in many electronic publications nowadays, and I regularly applaud the activities of their editors. Moreover, as I have suggested in my writing elsewhere, I believe we have finally reached a point where readers may safely say they are observing a coming of age for the online literary journal.

I have been pleased to notice, as further evidence of an increased respect for online magazines, the “table of contents” pages of some electronic literary journals now display a wide range of well-known poets and fiction writers whose presence was limited to print journals not too long ago, and whose contributions bring greater attention to those emerging authors publishing exciting work alongside them. Moreover, when I glance at the “acknowledgments” pages of new books of poetry or volumes of literary commentary, I find myself noting how many titles of online journals, including Valparaiso Poetry Review, are represented side by side with those titles of traditional print periodicals, all of which seem to have adopted at least some degree of online presence as well in recent years. In fact, various print journals have evolved into “hybrids,” also offering their content online, and during the past few years, readers have seen esteemed literary magazines start to migrate fully from a print format to an online-only status.

I invite readers to visit the links above. Please take a moment or two to reflect upon and appreciate the progress made by online literary journals in the first decade of this century.