I picked up a copy of n+1 today - apparently Issue 8, which isn't the current issue, 9. It's quite good. who is behind this journal? Anyone know? Where'd it come from?
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I've been following N+1 since its birth, several years ago.
Echoing you and Mike Beggs, I have nothing but praise; even my criticisms, if they go on for too long, turn out to be love letters to the pub's mission and execution.
The first year was a bit rocky for early adopters; issues didn't always arrive on time. Clever emails to empty-handed subscribers were full of apologies. Most of us were patient. Eventually, shipping issues were sorted out.
The magazine was founded by Mark Greif and Keith Gessen. I believe they were a part of the same new(ish) literary scene of textually cool-headed, young writers which spawned Dave Eggers' McSweeneys (a very different enterprise in many ways...but not entirely so).
As it happens, I learned about N+1 from an ad in an issue of McSweeneys. The ad might have been squeezed between a poem about Britney Spears' (then) jail bait routine and a letter from the 15th century. For some reason -- probably the name, which sounded like a fail-over cluster -- I was intrigued and signed on for the ride.
Below, some links you might find interesting:
Keith Gessen defending/explaining Mark Greif in the wake of an Awl article:
<http://keithgessen.tumblr.com/post/208510934/editors-response>
Wiki article on Mark Grief, featuring lots of lovely links:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Greif>
.d.