Reflecting the sentiments I expressed earlier, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses is kicking off a literary magazine adoption program.

This is sheer genius.

Students receive discounts on a yearlong subscriptions of certain literary magazines and participating class receive at least two issues of the publication in question over the course of the semester. The magazine publisher or editor will also participate in a virtual (or in-person, geography permitting) chat session.

Small literary magazines are the lifeblood of our art, yet we hardly lift a finger, as a culture, to ensure their continued existence.

I myself, am guilty. I make a point of buying newstand copies of four or five small lit mags over the course of the year, but I haven’t had my own subscription to one in over two years (and that was the Kenyon Review – while a much respected publication, perhaps not so in dire need of support as some others). My father does subscribe to Poetry and I confess to leeching, parasite-like, off his copies, but that hardly excuses me of my responsibility to support a cultural construction so important to my worldview.