Little Magazine Collection

Little Magazine Collection Selection Policy

For the purpose of collection policy little magazines are defined as English-language literary magazines of limited circulation which are non-commercial in nature. They are also characterized by a receptivity to new ideas, and a quest for the adventurous, the experimental and the revolutionary.

Generally speaking selection is focused on English-language magazines publishing original writing in poetry and/or fiction emanating principally from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean area, but also from expatriates of these regions anywhere in the world. Each title must be examined INDIVIDUALLY and judged ON ITS OWN MERITS (or lack of them). This is usually a SUBJECTIVE process, which owes more to the experience of the selectors and their knowledge of the collection than to firmly established criteria. There are however NO set rules but rather, general guidelines:

  1. Publications we do consider:
    1. Bilingual or trilingual LMs. They should be predominantly or at least half in English.
    2. LMs focusing on translation into English. Perfectly acceptable since they may contain important first translations of the works of internationally known writers.
    3. LMs containing a variety of graphics, reviews, interviews, in addition to poetry and/or fiction.
    4. LMs of merit published in Wisconsin, and in Madison and at UW-Madison in general.
  2. Fluctuations in policy over time:
    1. Student literary magazines sponsored by a college or a university. While these tended to be excluded in our previous policy on the grounds of sheer numbers, we now favor an approach which considers quality and high standards, as well as contributors from outside the institution. If however a title has been going for many years and we have just received a current issue, we rarely bother since earlier issues are probably unavailable.
    2. LMs published in a political perspective or emanating from special interest groups can present dilemmas. They often contain a mix of issue-oriented articles and reviews and occasional poems and stories. The literary content of each individual title has to be evaluated both for quality and quantity before deciding to subscribe. Obviously, LMs of a primarily political nature are important for research, and titles found not to be within the scope of the collection should be passed on to the appropriate selector.
    3. Literary reviews and academic quarterlies: generally these are bought for the general collection, but the lines sometimes become blurred.
  3. Publications we do not collect:
    1. Underground newspapers. These are collected by the State Historical Society. However they are not to be confused with LMs in tabloid format, which we do collect. There are also borderline publications in which the relative mix of news and poetry, for example, needs to be evaluated.
    2. Science fiction and zines. In spite of great proliferation these are not sought after (although a popular culture collection should include them). They may be considered if they publish primarily fiction (or poetry, although very unlikely).
    3. Newsletters of a very limited and local character are usually not important, but must be considered individually. Their possible value to the collection might be in the list of other LMs published in addition to articles and news items of strictly local interest.
    4. The following do not fall in the category of literary little magazines:

      5. Underground comix; heavily pornographic ( as opposed to avant-garde) magazines of no discernible literary value; very scholarly academic journals; slick commercial magazines. Small press magazines which publish only articles from a specific angle (e.g. health, alternative lifestyles, New Age, ecology, astrology) also do not generally contain enough poetry or fiction to warrant inclusion.

    5. We exclude the community or sewing circle-type poetry magazines, because the contents are usually of no literary significance and not likely to gain any in future.
  4. General information:
    1. Samples are ordered and examined for inclusion. In very few cases subscriptions are placed without having examined a sample issues; in cases of doubt, a subscription should be placed, and subsequent issues monitored; some LMs improve with time. Many also die in a short time, and unless subscribed to right in the beginning may never again be available. Subscriptions can always be cancelled, or transferred to the general collection if a LM turns out to be "big" rather than "little". The fact that the number of "live" subscriptions remains fairly constant indicates that some natural attrition takes place.
    2. Historically our policy has been to aim for complete runs, and always to try to get issue 1 and continuation. Constrained budgets do not nowadays permit the acquisition of back issues, especially for dead titles. We do buy very selectively from OP dealers. It is easiest and cheapest to obtain the issues as soon as they appear on the scene.
    3. We buy LM review sources, both for ordering information and reference purposes, and published indexes, which provide access to the contents of our collection and also serve for reference.

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