Guernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics is a biweekly online site that publishes art and photography, fiction, and poetry, from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces and opinion pieces on international affairs and U.S. domestic policy. It also publishes interviews and profiles of artists, writers, musicians and political figures.

Guernica 's stated mission is to publish works that explore "the crossroads between art and politics". According to Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

, Guernica was founded in 2004 by former M.F.A. students Joel Whitney and Michael Archer. The editors met during a teaching program in Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

.

Guernica Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware, incorporated on March 20, 2009.

Awards and events

In 2011, Bridget Potter's essay "Lucky Girl," was chosen for The Best American Essays

The Best American Essays

The Best American Essays is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States. It was started in 1986 and is now part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin...

, 2011, guest-edited by Edwidge Danticat. Mark Dowie's "Food Among the Ruins" was chosen for the Best of the Net anthology. Jack Shenker's "Dam Dilemma" was part of a portfolio of his work longlisted for the Orwell Prize

Orwell Prize

The Orwell Prize used to be regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing.Three prizes are awarded each year: one for a book, one for journalism and another for blogging...

 for Political Writing in the UK. In 2010, Oliver de la Paz's poem "Requiem for the Orchard", F. Daniel Rzicnek's poem "Geomancy" and Elizabeth Crane's short story "The Genius Meetings" won Best of the Web prizes (Dzanc Books). In 2009, E.C. Osondu

E.C. Osondu

E. C. Osondu is a Nigerian writer known for his short stories. His story "Waiting" won the 2009 Caine Prize, for which he had been a finalist in 2007. Osondu's stories have been published in Agni, Guernica, Vice, Fiction, and The Atlantic. , his debut collection of short stories was published in...

 was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing for his Guernica short story. Esquire magazine cited Guernica for its fiction and called it a "great online literary magazine". Matthew Derby's short story "January in December" won a Best of the Web prize (Dzanc Books). Aleš Šteger

Aleš Šteger

Aleš Šteger is a Slovene poet, writer, editor and literary critic. His poetry has been translated into numerous languages and published in over two hundred literary journals and magazines internationally....

's poem "Earring" (tr. Brian Henry) was selected for the Best of the Net Anthology (Sundress Publications). In 2008, Okey Ndibe

Okey Ndibe

Okey Ndibe is a novelist, political columnist, and essayist. Of Igbo ethnicity, Ndibe was born in Yola, Nigeria. He is the author of Arrows of Rain, a critically acclaimed novel published in 2000...

's "My Biafran Eyes" won a Best of the Web prize (Dzanc Books). Rebecca Morgan Frank's "Rescue" was chosen for the Best New Poets

Best New Poets

The Best New Poets series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing fifty poems from poets without a previously published collection...

 award.

Guernica is a three-time PEN World Voices

PEN World Voices

PEN World Voices: The New York Festival of International Literature was launched in 2005. PEN World Voices is a week-long literary festival in New York City. The Festival was founded by Esther Allen and Michael Roberts under then PEN President Salman Rushdie. The Festival was composed of programs,...

 participant in 2008, 2009 and 2010. It has co-sponsored events with the Asian American Writers' Workshop

Asian American Writers' Workshop

The Asian American Writers' Workshop is a nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 1991 to support of writers, literature and community. The Workshop also offers the annual Asian American Literary Awards and sponsors Page Turner: The Asian American Literary Festival.-External links:* *...

, Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 and various publishing companies.

Contributors and editors

Contributors include Lorraine Adams

Lorraine Adams

Lorraine Adams is an American journalist, and novelist.She was a staff writer for the Washington Post, and the Dallas Morning News.She lives in Washington, D.C.-Awards:* 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship* 2006 VCU First Novelist Award...

, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer.Her family is of Igbo descent. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.-Early life and education:...

, Jesse Ball

Jesse Ball

Jesse Ball is an American poet and novelist. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short prose, and drawings.-Education and Early Interests:...

, A. Igoni Barrett

A. Igoni Barrett

Adrian Igonibo Barrett is a Nigerian writer. He was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to a Nigerian mother and the Jamaican novelist and poet, Lindsay Barrett.Barrett was a winner of the BBC World Service short story competition for 2005...

, Mark Binelli, Amit Chaudhuri

Amit Chaudhuri

Amit Chaudhuri is an internationally recognised Indian English author and academic. He is currently Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia.-Life:...

, Susan Choi

Susan Choi

Susan Choi is an American novelist. Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana to a Korean father and the American daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. When she was nine years old, her parents divorced. She and her mother moved to Houston, Texas. Choi earned a B.A. in Literature from Yale University ...

, Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

, Billy Collins

Billy Collins

Billy Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...

, Elizabeth Crane, Susan Daitch

Susan Daitch

Susan Daitch is an American artist and writer.-Biography:Susan Daitch attended Barnard College, graduating in 1977...

, Mark Dowie, Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott (author)

Stephen Elliott is an American author and activist living in San Francisco who has written and published seven books. He is also the founder of the political action committee LitPAC, which holds readings by authors to raise money for progressive candidates.-Background and education:Elliott grew...

, Rivka Galchen

Rivka Galchen

Rivka Galchen is a Canadian-American writer. Her first novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, was published in 2008, has been translated into over 20 languages, and was awarded the William J. Saroyan International Prize for Fiction....

, James Galvin

James Galvin (poet)

James Galvin is an American poet. He has published six collections of poetry, most recently As Is , "X: Poems," and Resurrection Update, Collected Poems, 1975-1997 which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and the Poet’s Prize...

, Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh , is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.-Life:Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St...

, Mahvish Khan, Eric Kraft

Eric Kraft

Eric Kraft is an American novelist. He is known for his series of novels that make up "The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy". Each novel tells of some aspect of the fictional Peter Leroy's life, with several of them supposed to have been written by Leroy...

, Douglas Light

Douglas Light

Douglas Light is an award winning American novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer. His story collection, Girls in Trouble, won the 2010 AWP Grace Paley Prize for short fiction. It will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2011. His second novel, Where Night Stops,...

, Sarah Lindsay

Sarah Lindsay

Sarah Lindsay is an American poet from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In addition to writing the two chapbooks Bodies of Water and Insomniac's Lullabye, Lindsay has authored two books in the Grove Press Poetry Series: Primate Behavior and Mount Clutter...

, Okey Ndibe

Okey Ndibe

Okey Ndibe is a novelist, political columnist, and essayist. Of Igbo ethnicity, Ndibe was born in Yola, Nigeria. He is the author of Arrows of Rain, a critically acclaimed novel published in 2000...

, Meghan O'Rourke

Meghan O'Rourke

Meghan O'Rourke is an American poet, critic, and a contributing writer for the online magazine Slate. She is a graduate of Yale. O'Rourke was formerly a fiction editor at The New Yorker and from 2005-2010 was poetry co-editor at The Paris Review...

, Zachary Mason

Zachary Mason

Zachary Mason is a computer scientist and author. He is noted for his work The Lost Books of the Odyssey, his debut novel.Mason grew up in Silicon Valley, attended Bard College at Simon's Rock, and received a doctorate from Brandeis University, publishing his thesis A computational, corpus-based...

, Ernesto Mestre-Reed, Matthew Rohrer

Matthew Rohrer

Matthew Rohrer is an American poet.Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rohrer was raised in Oklahoma. He earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Iowa.His first book of poetry, A Hummock in the Malookas , was selected by Mary Oliver...

, Deb Olin Unferth

Deb Olin Unferth

Deb Olin Unferth is an American short-story writer, novelist, and memoirist. She is the author of the collection of stories Minor Robberies, the novel Vacation, both published by McSweeney's, and the memoir, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, published by Henry Holt.Her...

, Sergio Ramírez

Sergio Ramírez

Sergio Ramírez Mercado is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as Vice President of the country 1985-1990 under the presidency of Daniel Ortega.Born in Masatepe in 1942, he published his first book, Cuentos, in 1963...

, Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...

, Aurelie Sheehan

Aurelie Sheehan

Aurelie Sheehan is an American novelist and short story writer. She is the author of two novels, History Lesson for Girls and The Anxiety of Everyday Objects, as well as a collection of stories, Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant. She is the director of the creative writing program at the University of...

, Jonathan Steele

Jonathan Steele

Jonathan Steele is a British journalist, author of several books on international affairs.Jonathan Steele was educated at King's College, Cambridge and Yale University . He has reported on Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, and other countries. He was Washington Bureau Chief, Moscow Bureau Chief, and...

, Laren Stover

Laren Stover

Laren Stover is an American writer. She is the author of Pluto, Animal Lover , The Bombshell Manual of Style illustrated by Ruben Toledo and Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge . She won the Dana Award for the short story in 2001.-External links:** *****-References:...

, Terese Svoboda

Terese Svoboda

Terese Svoboda an American author living in New York City. Her writing has appeared in "Paris Review", "The New Yorker", "TLS", Narrative Magazine and other publications.-Bibliography:*"All Aberration" *Laughing Africa...

, Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten is an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He has written five novels – The Adventures of Mao on the Long March , Tallien: A Brief Romance , Tintin in the New World: A Romance , Van Gogh's Bad Café and The Green Hour – as well as one book of inter-related short...

 and Joe Wenderoth

Joe Wenderoth

Joe Wenderoth is an American poet, writer and professor. His work is widely anthologized, appearing in collections such as: The Anchor Book Of New American Short Stories, Isn't It Romantic, State of the Union, Poetry 180, The Next American Essay, The Best American Prose Poems: From Poe To Present,...

.

Recent guest fiction and poetry editors have included: Alexander Chee

Alexander Chee

Alexander Chee is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer.Born in Rhode Island, he spent his childhood in South Korea, Kauai, Truk, Guam and Maine...

, Pia Ehrhardt, Francisco Goldman

Francisco Goldman

Francisco Goldman is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. He is workshop director at , the journalism school for Latin-America created by Gabriel García Márquez...

, Randa Jarrar

Randa Jarrar

Randa Jarrar is an American novelist, short story writer, and translator.-Life:She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt, and moved to New York at the age of 13. She attended Sarah Lawrence College, and studied creative writing, then went on to receive a MA in Middle Eastern Studies from UT Austin and a MFA...

, Sam Lipsyte

Sam Lipsyte

Sam Lipsyte is an American novelist and short story writer.The son of the sports journalist Robert Lipsyte, Sam Lipsyte was born in New York City and raised in Closter, New Jersey...

, Ben Marcus

Ben Marcus

Ben Marcus is the author of three books of fiction, Notable American Women, The Father Costume, and The Age of Wire and String. His new novel, The Flame Alphabet, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in January of 2012...

, Claire Messud

Claire Messud

Claire Messud is an American novelist. She is best known as the author of the 2006 novel The Emperor's Children.-Early life:...

, George Saunders

George Saunders

George Saunders is a New York Times bestselling American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ, among other publications...

, Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith is an African American poet and educator. She has published three collections of poetry. About her most recent collection, Life on Mars , Joel Brouwer wrote: "Smith shows herself to be a poet of extraordinary range and ambition......

, and Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten is an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He has written five novels – The Adventures of Mao on the Long March , Tallien: A Brief Romance , Tintin in the New World: A Romance , Van Gogh's Bad Café and The Green Hour – as well as one book of inter-related short...

.

Interview subjects have included: Congressman John Conyers

John Conyers

John Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...

, Congresswomen Marcy Kaptur

Marcy Kaptur

Marcia Carolyn "Marcy" Kaptur is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1983. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, anchored by the city of Toledo, includes all of Ottawa and Erie counties, and part of Lucas and Lorain counties.Serving her fourteenth term in the House of...

 and Carolyn B. Maloney

Carolyn B. Maloney

Carolyn Bosher Maloney is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, popularly known as the "silk stocking district", includes most of Manhattan's East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens; and Roosevelt Island.-Early life,...

, Costa Rican President Óscar Arias

Óscar Arias

Óscar Arias Sánchez is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2006 to 2010. He previously served as President from 1986 to 1990 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars then raging in several other Central American countries.He is also a...

, Justice Department legal counsel John Yoo

John Yoo

John Choon Yoo is an American attorney, law professor, and author. As a former official in the United States Department of Justice during the George W...

, former member of Dutch Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...

, former Iraqi cabinet member Ali Allawi

Ali Allawi

Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi was Minister of Trade and Minister of Defense in the cabinet appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council from September 2003 until 2004, and subsequently Minister of Finance in the Iraqi Transitional Government between 2005 and 2006. A Shia Muslim, Allawi was part of the...

, artist Chuck Close

Chuck Close

Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...

, singers Lila Downs

Lila Downs

Lila Downs is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music...

 and David Byrne

David Byrne

David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...

, and authors Andrew Bacevich

Andrew Bacevich

Andrew J. Bacevich, Sr. is a professor of international relations at Boston University and a retired career officer in the United States Army...

, Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...

, Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...

, Samantha Power

Samantha Power

Samantha Power is an Irish American academic, governmental official and writer. She is currently a Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and runs the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights as Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council...

, Bernard-Henri Lévy

Bernard-Henri Lévy

Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual, philosopher and journalist. Often referred to today, in France, simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976.-Early life:...

, Nicholas D. Kristof

Nicholas D. Kristof

Nicholas Donabet Kristof is an American journalist, author, op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001 and is known for bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa, such as human trafficking and the...

, Joan Didion

Joan Didion

Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...

, playwright Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner

Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...

, and actor Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...

.

The magazine's advisory board includes:
Richard Howard

Richard Howard

Richard Howard is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren, and where he now teaches...

, Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist, and current candidate for the United States House of Representatives. Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting...

, Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten is an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He has written five novels – The Adventures of Mao on the Long March , Tallien: A Brief Romance , Tintin in the New World: A Romance , Van Gogh's Bad Café and The Green Hour – as well as one book of inter-related short...

Other editors include:
Meakin Armstrong (senior editor, fiction), Katherine Dykstra (senior editor, non-fiction), Alex Halperin (senior editor, non-fiction), Erica Wright (senior editor, poetry), Jamie Goldenberg (editor, art), Rebecca Bates (editor, the blog), Joy Wood (managing editor) and Elizabeth Onusko (assistant publisher).

External links

• Guernica magazine current issue
• Esquire magazine, "Great Online Literary Magazines"
• Publishers Weekly, "Guernica: Lit Mag Beats the Odds"
• The Guardian, "EC Osondu takes £10,000 'African Booker'"
• Susie Linfield discusses her Guernica article "Living with the Enemy" on Australian ABC's Late Night Live
• Editor-at-Large Mark Dowie discusses his Guernica article "Food Among the Ruins" on Detroit Public Radio
• Editor Joel Whitney discusses the magazine's coverage of the November presidential election on Federal News Radio
• New York magazine, "Bernard-Henri Lévy, Mia Farrow, and Some New Age Music Open the PEN World Voices Fest" (A Guernica PEN World Voices event)
• New York Times, "A Writer’s Violent End, and His Activist Legacy" (A Guernica PEN World Voices event)