When it comes to shaping the history behind modern American literature, few institutions have played as essential a role as that of the literary magazine. In this collection of essays and interviews, Travis Kurowski has compiled insights on the difficulty, worthiness and purpose of the ''little'' magazine, from sources ranging from Ezra Pound to T.C. Boyle.
Following its origins with Benjamin Franklin through its latest incarnations on the web, Paper Dreams engages its reader in historical conversations and explores why, despite small readership and astronomical failure rates, lit mags continue to pop up in droves across our literary landscape.
Paper Dreams reveals the idyllic motivations and goals of founding editors and writers of literary journals, who believe in the ethereal power of communication via the printed word and offers an exciting introduction to the individuals whose high ideals and boundless dedication brought to light so many groundbreaking ideas of our time.