literature to keep you company - german literary magazines
One thing I've been spending a lot of time with, to brighten up these engineering-heavy days, is literary magazines. The New Yorker, Harpers, n+1, and The Paris Review are all ones I've been enjoying, but they often have a bit too much of a US focus (all, even The Paris Review, are based out of New York City.) What I've really been wanting is to diversify my reading materials to literary magazines outside of the Anglosphere.
Naturally, my first stop was Wikipedia's list of literary magazines – which suffers exactly the same problem as before, namely that most of these are based out of the United States. Furthermore, a great number are inactive and are only included for reasons of historical significance. What I was really searching for was literary magazines, of the same caliber and vibe as The Paris Review, but produced in a German-speaking country, and ideally published in German. (How can I hope to one day join a circle of intellectuals in Germany if I do not know what they are reading?)
Luck was on my side, for this very same article is already available in German. Not only that, but this very article, under the heading "Listn vo Literaturzeitschriftn", is available in Bayrisch. The Bavarian-dialect Wikipedia, replete with its very own compilation of literarary magazines! What luck! It was from this list that I stumbled upon the Poetry Salzburg Review (published in English), as well as DUM (Das Ultimative Magazin, "the ultimate magazine"), both published out of Austria. DUM has its very own Bayrisch-language Wikipedia page, and it sometimes publishes Bayrisch-language poetry.
Contemporary, Bavarian-language poetry!
In particular, I am talking about the flimmern.fischen collection by Anna-Lena Obermoser. Snippets of it, read aloud by the author, can be listened to on DUM's site.
Can I understand spoken Bayrisch? No. Can I read a fair bit of it, in text form? Just the parts that have a ready resemblance to Standard High German. Still, it's fun to look at this poetry and appreciate what I can understand of it.
For others out there who have been seeking similar German-language writing, here are the best highlights from my search:
- 'apostrophe – a Gen Z literary mag based out of Austria. They remind me a bit of a long-form zine, and their aesthetics remind me of my artsy college friends. Importantly – they deliver to the United States!
- DELFI – a magazine for new literature. They have some absolute bangers and their list of authors includes Ocean Vuong. Seriously this is exactly the thing I was looking for. I was all ready to order an issue when I found out they only deliver within Europe. Argh! Getting a subscription will be a really nice treat for myself once I move.
»Wäre das Internet ein Tempel, so wären Memes die Gaben. Wäre der Rave ein Tempel, so fände die Sonntagsmesse pünktlich um 10 Uhr in einer verlassenen Fabrik in Queens statt. Und wenn der Tempel die eigene Wohnung ist? Oder der Körper? Welche Rituale huldigen ihm? «
"If the internet were a temple, memes would be its offerings. If the rave was a temple, its Sunday worship would occur punctually at 10am in an abandoned warehouse in Queens. And if the temple is one's own apartment? Or one's body? What rituals would one worship with?
- delirium – a Swiss magazine produced online and in print twice a year. Most pieces are in German, but at least one each are in English and Spanish.
Below is the full list of all magazines I found.
- 'apostrophe – a Gen Z literary mag
- AKZENTE – a publication based out of Munich which produces long-form essays about topics like nature, age, and exile.
- BELLA triste – a hip-seeming magazine which bills itself as a platform for up-and-coming/ new authors. Based out of Hildesheim.
- Cognac & Biskotten – a Tyrolean literature magazine based in Innsbruck.
- delirium – based out of Switzerland. It's a publication meant for an online space more so than for print.
- edit – published in Leipzig. Essays, prose, poetry, critiques.
- Daidalos – a mag for architecture, art and culture. They seem pretty classy, their website is fully fleshed out and they have an Instagram.
- Das Gedicht – a poetry magazine based in Munich!
- Kulturelemente – a publication dedicated to pressing questions of the present day. They have their own podcast, called »Kultur-hör!«
- Lichtung – Literatur, Kunst, Zeitkritik aus Graz.
- Nous – Zeitschrift für »konfrontative Literatur«. Their visuals remind me of the art of Käthe Kollwitz.
- Pigeon Publishing – based in Heidelberg. They have a whole section for (Queer) Feminismus.
- Sinn und Form – one of the premier literary magazines, based in Berlin. Has been in operation since 1949 and came to prominence for being a liberal publication published in the DDR, according to Wikipedia.
- Weisz auf Schwarz – they call themselves a »Textherbarium«, which I like. Their latest issue has a cover with a picture of Napoleon riding a unicycle. Instead of ö, they write œ. Quirky :)
- wespennest – billed as a »zeitschrift für brauchbare texte und bilder.« They do have the vibe you'd expect from a publication that names itself »wasp's nest«, and the »brauchbare texte« are mostly of a sociopolitical nature. Based out of Austria.
- zugetextet – reviews of poetry and literature.