| URL | 3AMmagazine.com |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Consumer |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Andrew Gallix |
| Created by | Kent Wilson |
| Launched | April 2000 |
| Current status | Online |
3:AM Magazine is a literary magazine, which was set up as 3ammagazine.com in April 2000 and is edited from Paris. Its editor-in-chief since inception has been Andrew Gallix, a lecturer at the Sorbonne.[1]
Its outlook is post-punk. It features transgressive fiction, interviews, critical writing and opinion columnists. Its slogan is "Whatever it is, we're against it."
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The magazine was launched in 2000. In 2004, the editors unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Daily Mirror newspaper from publishing a short-lived 3am Magazine supplement based around its 3am Girls gossip column.[2] The site was also called "suitably roguish for a website that aims to be an online Fitzrovia" by the Daily Telegraph,[3] while The Independent has hailed its commitment to 'the avant-garde' on several occasions.[4] The Spanish daily ABC hailed it as "the Offbeats’ New Yorker".[5]
An anthology covering its first five years of publishing, The Edgier Waters, was published in Britain by Snowbooks in June 2006, featuring writers Steve Almond, Bruce Benderson, Michael Bracewell, Tom Bradley, Billy Childish, Steven Hall, Ben Myers, Tim Parks, Mark Simpson, HP Tinker and Kenji Siratori, as well as poetry pieces arranged by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo alongside Tyondai Braxton.
A volume of new city-themed fiction, 3:AM London, Paris, New York followed in February 2008 (on Social Disease) and featured Henry Baum, Chris Cleave, Niven Govinden, Laura Hird, Toby Litt, Ed Park, Nicholas Royle, Matt Thorne and Evie Wyld.[6]
3:AM sees itself as an extension of publishing traditions forged by earlier literary magazines before the advent of webzines.[7] The magazine features literary criticism written by authors and also includes interviews with figures from all spheres of cultural activity, particularly cult and transgressive fiction. Its outlook and coverage is post-punk, particularly the emphasis on 'blank generation' authors and elements of 'Prada Meinhof' (for instance Stuart Christie and John Barker). Stuckism features prominently, from the poetry of Billy Childish and fellow Buff Medway Wolf Howard, to the regular column by Charles Thomson, though equally it has also carried pieces supportive of Britart, in particular on Damien Hirst and with Matthew Collings. There is also a strong musical presence on the site, from an extensive archive by and about punk rockers, through to pieces by and about Spacemen 3 and other shoegazer acts.
It claims its litblog 'Buzzwords' to be the world's first (since 2000).[8]
Authors interviewed more than once include Steve Almond, Will Ashon, Stephen Barber, Billy Childish, Andrei Codrescu, Dennis Cooper, Richard Hell, Stewart Home, Tom Bradley, Wu Ming, Michael Moorcock, Dan Rhodes, Nicholas Royle, Iain Sinclair, Scarlett Thomas, Cathi Unsworth and Helen Walsh as well as Jon Savage and Simon Critchley. The magazine also interviews figures in the underground press, such as Lisa Crystal Carver, Lydia Lunch, Mick Farren and Pleasant Gehman. Recently it has carried poetry by Charles Bukowski and featured interviews by Bukowski acolyte Ben Pleasants, including with John Fante and Steve Richmond.
Tom McCarthy (whom it championed from the outset of his writing career) has written several pieces for 3:AM and appeared at a number of its events.[9] 3:AM Editor Andrew Gallix runs the unofficial Tom McCarthy site 'Surplus Matter' [10] It has reviewed, interviewed and run excerpts of avant-garde writers Lydia Lunch, Stephen Barber and Stewart Home. Former Kenickie and Brian Jonestown Massacre keyboardist turned novelist Tony O'Neill is a regular contributor and interviewee.
In recent years it has become eminent in the translation of European avant-garde poetry under its 'Maintenant' series.
Regular columnists include Sophie Parkin, Ben Myers, Hillary Raphael and Cathi Unsworth. Past editors have included Noah Cicero, Heidi James, Travis Jeppesen, Chris Killen, Tao Lin (as Poetry Editor), Lee Rourke, Adelle Stripe and HP Tinker.