REDEFINING THE LITERARY MAGAZINE Canteen magazine launches, focusing on the creative process New York/San Francisco, May 8, 2007—Canteen, a fundamentally different take on the literary magazine, will launch its inaugural issue on May 15, 2007. Devoted to aesthetic allure, Canteen represents a significant departure from the tepid design and production values that define traditional literary magazines. In addition, it will focus on the creative process—how and why writers and artists create—often asking writers to venture outside their usual genres. In the inaugural issue, Andrew Sean Greer confesses to his secret childhood novels, the first written at age 10, and shares some revealing excerpts. Po Bronson writes about what happens after the book is done—in this case, a suicide attempt by a reader of Po’s lauded What Should I Do with My Life? And novelists Julie Orringer and Ryan Harty reveal the decisions involved in creating a powerful poem from a Magnetic Poetry Kit®. Canteen showcases artistic outcomes, too, with new short fiction, poetry, and art. Says Po Bronson, “Canteen's given some exciting highbrow writers the venue to take chances fearlessly, without the presumption of an audience of stuffy MFAs smirking over every line. The essay I wrote for Canteen is one I wouldn't have—and couldn't have—written for anyone else.” Canteen’s name derives from Chef Dennis Leary’s Canteen restaurant in San Francisco, where we hosted a series of successful literary banquets. Chef Leary also contributed a wild, genre-crossing piece to the first issue, envisioning restaurants of the future. Canteen’s choice to highlight the creative process is made in response to a simple observation: that interest in reading literature has been eclipsed by interest in how and why literature is made. That’s one reason it’s easier to earn money teaching creative writing than practicing it. Add the ascendance of the memoir over the novel, scandal over plot, biography over oeuvre, and we saw a trend: It’s no longer enough just to experience the arts—we want to be part of their creation. For more information, please contact: Stephen Pierson, PUBLISHER
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