POST NO ILLS Magazine: A New American Review . . . of Reviews
In 2008, following a two-year stint as the managing editor of Callaloo--a job that had me splitting my time between Washington, D.C. and Houston/College Station, Texas--I resigned to settle on the east coast. Since my time as an undergraduate at U.Va., when I worked with 3.7 Magazine, I had an interest in the impact of publishing. A thankless job it is--all publishing is thankless--but also an indispensable one in our society. So upon leaving Callaloo, I knew I wanted to maintain a connection to publishing. And after working under the tutelage of Charles Rowell, who'd built Callaloo from a kitchen table production to the juggernaut it is today, I also had the desire to venture my own endeavor.
While I was serving as the managing editor for Callaloo, I was also studying arts administration. So, I understood that the decision to begin any new arts initiative needed to be grounded in an understanding of what was already being offered and how my mission related to the excesses and absences in the publishing world. Everywhere I looked, I saw online journals publishing new work. At the same time, I noticed the winnowing presence of book reviews in newspapers--from the local weeklys to the internationally followed dailies. Once that assessment of the publishing environment gelled in my mind, I knew I wanted to do something that would engage, address and introduce to the broader world all this literature that was being produced and disseminated.
Additionally, I was not happy (and, honestly, am still not happy) with the quality of the book reviews that I read. Either exaltation or assassination--with a vast, critically objective middle unoccupied--I did not see many critics doing the work of actually engaging authorial decisions and craft that went into texts. And we need that--we need to make clear the grounds upon which we engage with literature. No book is worthless and no book is perfect, so why not have a more honest conversation about what the books we are reading do and do not do well? Readers need to hear it. Writers need to hear it. It allows both to grow together. "Ill" as I intend it in the magazine's title, it the type of commentary on art that seeks to editorialize more than it honestly critiques. Thus the title presents our charge, i.e. to post no ills (playing off the ubiquitous "post no bills).
So that has been my task since 2008--creating a space for a more fruitful manner of engagement with art and art makers. I work intimately with my reviewers, and we don't publish with great frequency. (I am still out-of-pocket and without any proper staff.) But what we do publish, when we publish it, is criticism and conversation I feel good enough about to lose money on its production.
~kgd
Highlights from POST NO ILLS' History
"Sucka-Free Democracy: Hip-Hop’s Potential Response to an Obama Presidency (A POST NO ILLS E-Roundtable)" (Published September, 2008)
"Lowly Monks: An Interview with Junot Diaz" (Published October, 2008)
"'Mara Digital': An Interview with NBC News Reporter Mara Schiavocampo" (Published November, 2008)
"Decisions, Decisions: Six Questions for Carl Phillips" (Published September 2010)
"More Than Hurt: A Choral Interview and Track Sampling Featuring Heroes Are Gang Leaders’ Forthcoming Baraka Tribute Album" (Published January 2015)
In 2008, following a two-year stint as the managing editor of Callaloo--a job that had me splitting my time between Washington, D.C. and Houston/College Station, Texas--I resigned to settle on the east coast. Since my time as an undergraduate at U.Va., when I worked with 3.7 Magazine, I had an interest in the impact of publishing. A thankless job it is--all publishing is thankless--but also an indispensable one in our society. So upon leaving Callaloo, I knew I wanted to maintain a connection to publishing. And after working under the tutelage of Charles Rowell, who'd built Callaloo from a kitchen table production to the juggernaut it is today, I also had the desire to venture my own endeavor.
While I was serving as the managing editor for Callaloo, I was also studying arts administration. So, I understood that the decision to begin any new arts initiative needed to be grounded in an understanding of what was already being offered and how my mission related to the excesses and absences in the publishing world. Everywhere I looked, I saw online journals publishing new work. At the same time, I noticed the winnowing presence of book reviews in newspapers--from the local weeklys to the internationally followed dailies. Once that assessment of the publishing environment gelled in my mind, I knew I wanted to do something that would engage, address and introduce to the broader world all this literature that was being produced and disseminated.
Additionally, I was not happy (and, honestly, am still not happy) with the quality of the book reviews that I read. Either exaltation or assassination--with a vast, critically objective middle unoccupied--I did not see many critics doing the work of actually engaging authorial decisions and craft that went into texts. And we need that--we need to make clear the grounds upon which we engage with literature. No book is worthless and no book is perfect, so why not have a more honest conversation about what the books we are reading do and do not do well? Readers need to hear it. Writers need to hear it. It allows both to grow together. "Ill" as I intend it in the magazine's title, it the type of commentary on art that seeks to editorialize more than it honestly critiques. Thus the title presents our charge, i.e. to post no ills (playing off the ubiquitous "post no bills).
So that has been my task since 2008--creating a space for a more fruitful manner of engagement with art and art makers. I work intimately with my reviewers, and we don't publish with great frequency. (I am still out-of-pocket and without any proper staff.) But what we do publish, when we publish it, is criticism and conversation I feel good enough about to lose money on its production.
~kgd
Highlights from POST NO ILLS' History
"Sucka-Free Democracy: Hip-Hop’s Potential Response to an Obama Presidency (A POST NO ILLS E-Roundtable)" (Published September, 2008)
"Lowly Monks: An Interview with Junot Diaz" (Published October, 2008)
"'Mara Digital': An Interview with NBC News Reporter Mara Schiavocampo" (Published November, 2008)
"Decisions, Decisions: Six Questions for Carl Phillips" (Published September 2010)
"More Than Hurt: A Choral Interview and Track Sampling Featuring Heroes Are Gang Leaders’ Forthcoming Baraka Tribute Album" (Published January 2015)