The Future of Literary Culture
It starts here
For a long time, we fretted about the state of the culture. And, well, we still fret—we’re writers and editors, after all—but there’s only so much lamenting one can do in a given day. We talk about the golden age of books and magazines, and imagine the expense accounts we might hit up for the three martini lunches and steak dinners with our colleagues. Nostalgia, though, can be dangerous. It keeps you in a rut. It keeps you from innovating.
At the end of January, we launched The Metropolitan Review. It began with a rather straightforward premise: publish good writing, and people will show up. For too long, newspapers, magazines, and literary journals had underestimated their readers. They published listicles and softball interviews, or slashed books coverage altogether. They gave up on culture. They conveyed, not unsubtly, that deep thinking didn’t matter any longer.
We’re excited to report our premise was correct. If you build it, as the voice in the cornfield once said, people will come. Today, we have more than 21,000 subscribers. Our growth, in these first two months, has been nothing short of explosive. The wonderful part about this growth is that it’s not built on gimmicks or slop; we simply find great writers and let them write.
After many publications foolishly turned down his pitch, Alexander Sorondo came to us to report on the fascinating and wild odyssey of William T. Vollmann, the literary legend attempting to publish a 3,000-page epic on the CIA. Sorondo interviewed Vollmann, Jonathan Franzen, Junot Díaz, and many others, putting together an essay that spanned 11,000 words. What happened? It racked up more than 30,000 pageviews and became the focus of conversation in all corners of the literary world.
We published Lillian Fishman on the state of marriage, and Django Ellenhorn on how men and women are trying (and failing, sometimes) to write well on gender in today’s novels. Each stirred up debate that is still, as we write this, remarkably alive. They represent the kind of criticism and reportage you won’t find elsewhere. This is what makes The Metropolitan Review so special.
Now, here comes the tough part. It costs money to run a book review and culture publication. We want to pay our writers a fair market rate. We want to fund our beautiful print publication, which will be coming to you this June. The vast, vast majority of our 21,000+ subscribers are not pledging annual or monthly subscriptions.
We must change that.
Will you pledge $80 today to help TMR thrive deep into the future? If you pledge $80, you are guaranteed access to our print issues and all online writing. (Or, if you want to simply support us and not get the print, you can, for the price of a cup of coffee, pledge $5 a month.) We also have a Founding Member tier for $150, which gets you our everlasting gratitude and, of course, the print.
But plans are nothing without money. If you find yourself reading and loving TMR—or reading and wanting to furiously debate us—please make a pledge today. Every dollar, literally, goes to our writers and our print publication. We need you today.
Most individual Substacks charge $80 these days to read. We’re asking for the same to support an institution—one with a website and upcoming print journal—and that’s not too bad a deal, right? Remember, every single annual pledge can become a print subscription. We’ll contact you soon with more information about that.
Thank you for your readership, and all that you do. TMR wouldn’t be a smashing success without you. Together, we will do great things.
—The Editors
What will the situation be for international readers on a print subscription, do you know?
Very excited to be part of this team!