The design of a literary magazine’s website probably shouldn’t be one of the criteria that makes it memorable. But it’s something I notice, which shows just how shallow I am. Like most of us.
Web design signifies a publication’s aesthetic or its editors’ personalities. While an austere homepage can be impressive, it might not be enticing.
I wasn’t sure what made me curious enough to click through and read, so I collected some links to the literary magazines that seemed interesting because of their good looks online:
Blood & Honey Review – Bosnian & English [CLOSED]
California Northern – essays, long-form journalism, literature, and photography
Coilhouse – alternative culture
Dark Sky Magazine – fiction, poetry, essays, and art [CLOSED: Learn more at "Barrelhouse Publishes Final Issue of Dark Sky Magazine."]
Linebreak – poetry read by poets
The Literary Bohemian – travel-inspired writing
The Pedestrian – personal essays
Quick Fiction – 500 words or less
Salamander – poetry, fiction, and memoir
Unsplendid – poetry in received and nonce forms
Does appearance indicate quality? I’m not sure. It affects usability. The noisy magazine-style, or multi-column, websites are not appealing to me. The more a literary magazine’s website resembles a printed literary magazine, the more I like it.
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 at 10:19 pm
I agree about multi-columns being less appealing–too many things to look at on the laptop’s small screen. Literary Bohemian is, to me, the most visually interesting of the bunch. For readability, I like Blood & Honey Review because it is easy to navigate with the sliding bar. It also provides complete stories rather than excerpts.
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 at 11:11 pm
This was an interesting variety of literary magazines.