Zembla (magazine)

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Zembla was a literary and arts magazine published in London for eight issues between 2003 and 2005. The editor was Dan Crowe and the publisher was Simon Finch. The magazine's title came from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire, in which the narrator Charles Kinbote styles himself the last king of Zembla.

Several of the contributors were associated with the New Puritans movement, including Nicholas Blincoe, Geoff Dyer, Daren King, Toby Litt, Scarlett Thomas and Matt Thorne. Other contributors included Jake Arnott, Paul Auster, David Baddiel, Manolo Blahnik, John Byrne, Brian Eno, Helen Fielding, Tibor Fischer, Tim Footman, Russell Hoban, Barry Humphries, Siri Hustvedt, AL Kennedy, Matthew Kneale, Hari Kunzru, Hanif Kureishi, JT Leroy, Stephen Merchant, ZZ Packer, Harold Pinter, Nicholas Royle, Will Self, Tilda Swinton and Rachel Weisz.

One of the notable features was The Dead Interview, in which a modern writer offered an imaginary conversation with a deceased cultural figure. Subjects included Marcel Duchamp ('interviewed' by Michel Faber), Jimi Hendrix (Rick Moody), Henry James (Cynthia Ozick), Samuel Johnson (David Mitchell), Friedrich Nietzsche (Geoff Dyer) and Robert Louis Stevenson (Louise Welsh).

The magazine folded in October 2005 when Simon Finch's rare books company went into administration.

[edit] External link

• Interview with Dan Crowe, editor of Zembla, in 3:AM Magazine, February 2005