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 WeeklyPublishers 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 RicaCosta 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 EssaysThe 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 PrizeThe 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. OsonduE. 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 ŠtegerAleš 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 NdibeOkey 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 PoetsThe 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 VoicesPEN 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' WorkshopThe 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 InternationalAmnesty 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 AdamsLorraine 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 AdichieChimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer.Her family is of Igbo descent. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.-Early life and education:...
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Jesse BallJesse Ball is an American poet and novelist. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short prose, and drawings.-Education and Early Interests:...
,
A. Igoni BarrettAdrian 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 ChaudhuriAmit 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 ChoiSusan 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 ChomskyAvram 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 CollinsBilly 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 DaitchSusan Daitch is an American artist and writer.-Biography:Susan Daitch attended Barnard College, graduating in 1977...
, Mark Dowie,
Stephen ElliottStephen 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 GalchenRivka 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 GalvinJames 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 GhoshAmitav 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 KraftEric 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 LightDouglas 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,...
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Sarah LindsaySarah 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...
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Okey NdibeOkey 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'RourkeMeghan 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 MasonZachary 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 RohrerMatthew 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 UnferthDeb 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 RamírezSergio 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...
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Amartya SenAmartya 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...
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Aurelie SheehanAurelie 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...
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Jonathan SteeleJonathan 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...
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Laren StoverLaren 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:...
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Terese SvobodaTerese 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...
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Frederic TutenFrederic 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 WenderothJoe 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 CheeAlexander 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 GoldmanFrancisco 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 JarrarRanda 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...
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Sam LipsyteSam 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 MarcusBen 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...
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Claire MessudClaire Messud is an American novelist. She is best known as the author of the 2006 novel The Emperor's Children.-Early life:...
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George SaundersGeorge 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...
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Tracy K. SmithTracy 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 TutenFrederic 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 ConyersJohn Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
, Congresswomen
Marcy KapturMarcia 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. MaloneyCarolyn 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 AriasÓscar 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 YooJohn 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 AliAyaan 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 AllawiAli 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 CloseCharles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
, singers
Lila DownsLila Downs is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music...
and
David ByrneDavid 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 BacevichAndrew J. Bacevich, Sr. is a professor of international relations at Boston University and a retired career officer in the United States Army...
,
Don DeLilloDon 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 ZinnHoward 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 PowerSamantha 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 LévyBernard-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. KristofNicholas 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 DidionJoan 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 KushnerAnthony 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 FarrowMia 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 HowardRichard 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 SolomonNorman 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 TutenFrederic 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