The Believer (magazine)

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The Believer is an American magazine, primarily about literature.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Published by McSweeney's out of San Francisco, the magazine also covers other artforms, and features articles about authors, artists, and literary issues of the past and present, often relating to politics and popular culture. The Believer is published semi-monthly—10 issues per year)—and sometimes featuring a CD or DVD insert.

As the magazine states above its masthead, "The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. We will focus on writers and books we like.We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was The Optimist."[1]

[edit] Contents

The magazine draws on a stable of recurring features including book reviews, interviews, letters from readers, installments from a variety of authors, etc.Notable monthly features include an advice column by Amy Sedaris and a Book Review column by Nick Hornby. All issues include a two-page, multi-color feature called "Schema".

[edit] Illustration

Illustrations and cartoons are featured throughout the magazine. The cover illustrations are done by Charles Burns, while most of the other portraits and line drawings are by Tony Millionaire (following Gilbert Hernandez from the fifth issue on). Michael Kupperman's Four-Color Comics has appeared in many issues, and in most issues a series of images from a given artist or other source run throughout the articles à la The New Yorker.

[edit] Advertising

In early 2007, The Believer began printing full-page commercial advertisements — one per issue — on its inside back cover. This has led to two additional full-page advertisements in the center of the magazine on either side of one page. Previously, the magazine had been specifically promoted as advertisement-free.[2]

[edit] Published issues

Title Month Vol/No Cover illustrations Notes
  March 2003 1 1 Terry Gilliam, Beth Orton, Salman Rushdie, and Susan Straight
  May 2003 1 2 Judith Butler, Ashida Kim, Gary Lutz, and Jack White
All Is Well June 2003 1 3 Richard Rorty, Liz Phair, Frank Herbert, and Steve Erickson
Steady! July 2003 1 4 John Haskell, Jamaica Kincaid, Jan Potocki, and Martin Short
On Time, All the Time August 2003 1 5 Rudy Giuliani, Shirin Neshat, Adam Phillips, and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson
Make It So September 2003 1 6 Jenny Gage, a bust of Emperor Augustus, and two versions, one good and one evil, of Andy Richter
Rotunda October 2003 1 7 John Banville, Joan Didion, Jerry Lewis, and Stephen Malkmus
Neckfire! November 2003 1 8 Tina Fey, David Foster Wallace, Cornell Woolrich, and a woman without a face
Cúspide December 2003 / January 2004 1 9 Ice Cube, Aleksandra Mir, Marianne Moore, and the Sweet Valley High twins
Lodestar February 2004 2 1 Philip Seymour Hoffman, Yukio Mishima, Elaine Pagels, and Milana Runjić
Flyerette March 2004 2 2 Dominic Arou, George Saunders, Amy Sedaris, and the titular horse from Black Beauty
Porchcrawlin' April 2004 2 3 Tracey Emin, Errol Morris, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and the state of Iowa
Wodge May 2004 2 5 Ada Byron, Charles Dickens, Dawit Giorgis, and Kiki Smith Note: there is no Volume 2, Number 4.
Cassingle June 2004 2 6 David Byrne, Ani DiFranco, James Joyce, Dory Previn, Q-Tip, Elliott Smith, and Eddie Vedder First "Music Issue", with CD.
Blowsy July 2004 2 7 Shirley Hazzard, Nick Hornby, Danica Phelps, and the titular character of Don Quixote
Carafe August 2004 2 8 Susan Choi, Francisco Goldman, Robert Pollard, and P.G. Wodehouse
Bunshoft! September 2004 2 9 Ian Frazier, Klaus Kinski, George Meyer, and Mary Lynn Rajskub
Carry October 2004 2 10 John Kerry
Hartshorn November 2004 2 11 Walter Abish, Buddy Bolden, David O. Russell, and August Wilson
Rhathymia December 2004 / January 2005 2 12 Eleven artists from L.A.: Tessa Chasteen, Harry Dodge, Francesca Gabbiani, Charles Garabedian, Matt Greene, Stanya Kahn, Tom Knechtel, Nick Lowe, Jennifer Pastor, Mindy Shapero, and Thaddeus Strode "Art Issue", with DVD.
Arable February 2005 3 1 Paul Auster, Eve Sussman, Todd Solondz, and a blue whale
Couchfire! March 2005 3 2 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Marjorie Grene, Mario Van Peebles, and a Wonder Woman action figure
Future Salad April 2005 3 3 Sarah Jones, China Miéville, Stevie Smith, and Carlos Castaneda's head "overrun by doom-vines"
Hoax Fed May 2005 3 4 Teresa Edwards, Steve Martin, The Adventures of Tintin, and Tobias Wolff
Gnash June / July 2005 3 5 Beck, Donovan, Aimee Mann, Karen O, Daniel Smith, Mark E. Smith, and Smoosh "2005 Music Issue", with CD.
Pressure Face August 2005 3 6 Björk, Dennis Cooper, Ian McEwan, and Zadie Smith
Boomtown September 2005 3 7 Sarah Silverman, Tom Stoppard, Cerebus, and Mark Mothersbaugh
Bitumen October 2005 3 8 David Mamet, Lorrie Moore, David Sedaris, and Nosferatu
Spoonbread November 2005 3 9 Maya Rudolph, William H. Gass, Devendra Banhart, and a doctor peering into James McManus's colon
Pentimento December 2005 / January 2006 3 10 L’Inconnue de la Seine, Olive Oatman, Miranda July, and Laylah Ali This issue includes the debut DVD of Wholphin.
Teethsome February 2006 4 1 Angélique Kidjo, Demetri Martin, Eminem, and Peter Singer
Plangent Corn March 2006 4 2 Harold Ramis, Ed Ruscha, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robyn Hitchcock
Holus-Bolus April 2006 4 3 Sayyed Qutb, Isaac Brock, Paul Giamatti, and Susan Sontag
Junk of Pork May 2006 4 4 Orhan Pamuk, Nicole Holofcener, Jim White, and a taxidermied wallaby
Gloamin June / July 2006 4 5 Juana Molina, Bun B, Stephen O'Malley, Sid Vicious, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley "2006 Music Issue", with CD.
Lambkinette August 2006 4 6 Jennifer Egan, Marjane Satrapi, Steven Soderbergh, and a rat
Crambo September 2006 4 7 E. Gary Gygax, Nancy, Wanda Sykes, and Georges Perec
Broomcorn October 2006 4 8 Laurel Nakadate, Joe Henry, Alison Young, and a woman living in Gaza
Exigenices November 2006 4 9 DJ Shadow, Ben Thomas, Irvine Welsh, and a character from a film by The Brothers Quay
Majuscule December 2006 / January 2007 4 10 Various anonymous gallerygoers, including a woman wearing one of Rosemarie Trockel's knit caps, a masked child from a Ralph Eugene Meatyard photograph, and Matthew Barney "Visual Issue", with detachable art stack by New York artist Kehinde Wiley.
Blandishments February 2007 5 1 Richard Powers, Olivia Judson, Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj (a.k.a. Asashoryu), and Cheryl Hines
Gravid March 2007 5 2 Pankaj Mishra, Ruth Ozeki, Eric Bogosian, and Joey Lauren Adams
Litotes April 2007 5 3 Mira Nair, Thomas Bernhard, Janeane Garofalo, and Scott McCloud's self-portrait
Azabache May 2007 5 4 A creature from the Codex Seraphinianus, Monica Ali, Will Sheff, and Lauren Weinstein
Oubliette June / July 2007 5 5 Lightning Bolt "2007 Music Issue", with CD.
Syreeta August 2007 5 6 Nancy Wilson, Fantomah (jungle-protectress from the comics of Fletcher Hanks), Erica Jong, and Michael Ondaatje
Boeufcake September 2007 5 7 A bonobo, Mike Scott, Jorge Luis Borges, and Paula Fox
Nonce October 2007 5 8 Amy Hempel, Panda Bear, Paul Simonon, and Karl May

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Believer, Masthead. The Believer website. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  2. ^ promotional copy for Believer Magazine #29 (November 2005). Last Gasp distributor website. Retrieved on 2007-06-27.

[edit] External links