Magazine to focus on fiction, poetry

At the end of the year, the changing field of literary magazines will likely be joined by a new name: a Public Space. It is notable for at least two reasons: The editor is Brigid Hughes, George Plimpton’s successor at the Paris Review, and the focus will be on two art forms no longer in fashion -- fiction and poetry.

Magazines such as Collier’s and the Atlantic Monthly once served as starting points and sustainers for poets and fiction writers, including Wallace Stevens and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but few major publications highlight such work anymore. Hughes’ contract was not renewed at the Paris Review earlier this year, amid reports that the board of directors wanted more nonfiction and a more commercial approach.

“I really think there’s a place for a magazine that puts literature center stage, reminds us of why we read stories and why we read poems,” says Hughes, Plimpton’s protege at the Paris Review who took over as editor after he died in 2003.

Like the Paris Review, Hughes’ magazine will come out four times a year and emphasize fiction and poetry by new and established authors. Hughes wants her magazine to be the kind of place where writers can publish a 60-page short story, where they feel that their vision, not the editors’, matters most.

But a Public Space will be different. Whereas the Paris Review has emphasized the writing process, especially in its celebrated “Writers at Work” interviews, Hughes would like to help her authors get “away from their desks more.” She plans a “field work” grant program that would allow for travel and research, such as letting an author visit a city that will would serve as the setting for a historical novel.

Hughes plans to base her magazine in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she lives. She has recruited a pair of well-regarded writers, Richard Powers and Yiyun Li, to work as contributing editors, and has been in touch with departed Paris Review staffers.

The Paris Review helped establish countless authors, such as Philip Roth and Jeffrey Eugenides, but rarely had more than a few thousand subscribers and relied on Plimpton’s charm and connections to stay in business. C. Michael Curtis, senior editor for fiction at the Atlantic Monthly, says magazines devoted to fiction and poetry have almost never been profitable and that a Public Space will need a “backer with a lot of money who wants to spend it.”

“Fiction has always been a part of magazines, including a number of successful ones, because it was thought to be a critical ingredient. But that’s not the same as saying it helped make those magazines profitable,” says Curtis, whose magazine recently reduced fiction coverage to a single annual issue.

Hughes says that she is receiving financial support from the publishing, business and film communities and that her magazine will be funded through “private donors, grants, subscription revenue and advertising.” A four-issue annual subscription will cost $30, and individual copies likely will cost $10 to $12, compared with $40 a year for a subscription at the Paris Review and $12 for a single issue.

“I think there’s a healthy rivalry among literary magazines,” says Hughes, who adds that she does not see herself in competition with her former employer. “It keeps us on our toes, and creates an energy and momentum that’s valuable to everyone.”