The Bookseller.com

6th October 2008

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New lit mag from Hamish Hamilton

25.06.08 Jo Young

Hamish Hamilton has launched a new online literary magazine, Five Dials, designed to promote and distribute quality writing which is unlikely to be printed elsewhere.

The free monthly magazine, which launched on 21st June, will publish work from a variety of authors from all backgrounds, including new work by previously unpublished writers and those whose writing has gone out of print. Inclusion will not be limited to Hamish Hamilton or Penguin authors.

The first issue includes unpublished work from Iain Sinclair and Rachel Lichtenstein, a short story from Hari Kunzru, the first of a regular “agony uncle” column from Alain de Botton and poetry from Joe Dunthorne.

The intention is that the magazine will fulfil a similar publishing niche to the kind of literary magazines popular in the US, of which there are few in the UK market.

“Hamish Hamilton has always tried to publish good and interesting writing, and the magazine has been launched in that same spirit, addressing the reader directly. We’re looking at what writers are doing for which there isn’t really much of a place elsewhere; the UK is not like the US, there are really very few literary magazines out there that would be interested in publishing shorter pieces, stories and poems,” explained Simon Prosser, publishing director at Hamish Hamilton.

Each issue will “reintroduce” work that has largely lost a modern audience—including out of print writing—and will include illustrations from different graphic artists. Available as a downloadable PDF, Five Dials had just over 1000 subscribers in the first few days after its official launch.

Prosser said there were no fixed targets for subscriber numbers at this stage. “We had 1020 subscribers at last count, from around the world as well as a good response from the UK, so it’s incredibly exciting, but we just want to see at the moment how widely this can be circulated,” he said.

The magazine is edited by author Craig Taylor, who will be working from the Hamish Hamilton offices one day per week. “We’re hoping Five Dials will be a repository for the new, a chance to focus on ideas that might not work elsewhere, a place to witness writers testing new muscles, producing essays, extracts and unexplainables,” said Taylor in his introduction to the magazine’s debut issue.

Five Dials

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