''3:AM Magazine'' is a literary magazine, which was set up as 3ammagazine.com in April 2000 and is edited from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. Its editor-in-chief since inception has been Andrew Gallix, a lecturer at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. ''3:AM'' features literary criticism, nonfiction essays, original fiction, poetry, and interviews with leading writers and philosophers. Its slogan is: "Whatever it is, we're against it."

History

The magazine was launched in 2000. In 2004, the editors unsuccessfully tried to prevent the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ci ...

'' newspaper from publishing a short-lived ''3am Magazine'' supplement based around its 3am Girls gossip column. The site was called "irreverently highbrow" by

Heather Stewart Heather Stewart (born 28 September 1976) is an English journalist who is a special correspondent for '' The Guardian.'' She was formerly political editor of ''The Guardian'', and before that economics editor of '' The Observer'' and before that, ...

in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'', and described as aiming to be "an online

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End of London, West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Co ...

" by Lilian Pizzichini in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

.''

Boyd Tonkin Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL is an English writer, journalist and literary critic. He was the literary editor of ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 2013. A long-time proponent of foreign-language literature, he is the author of ''The 100 Best Nov ...

, in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', described it as keeping "faith with the old little-review tradition of ''avant-garde'' provocation and seditious literary cheek" and Inés Martin Rodrigo, in Spanish daily ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

'', likened it to an " Offbeats' ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

''". 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 Steve Almond (born October 27, 1966) is an American short-story writer, essayist and author of ten books, three of which are self-published. Life Almond was raised in Palo Alto, California, graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School and received ...

Bruce Benderson Bruce Benderson (born August 6, 1946) is an American author, born to parents of Russian Jewish descent, who lives in New York. He attended William Nottingham High School (1964) in Syracuse, New York and then Binghamton University (1969). He is tod ...

, Michael Bracewell, Tom Bradley,

Billy Childish Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper, 1 December 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has le ...

, Steven Hall,

Ben Myers Benjamin Myers (born January 1976) is an English writer and journalist. Early life Myers grew up in Belmont, County Durham, and was a pupil at the estate's local comprehensive school where he become interested in reading and skateboarding. My ...

Tim Parks Timothy Harold Parks (born 19 December 1954) is a British novelist, translator, author and professor of literature. Career He is the author of eighteen novels (notably ''Europa (novel), Europa'', which was List of winners and shortlisted autho ...

, Mark Simpson, HP Tinker and Kenji Siratori, as well as poetry pieces arranged by

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of th ...

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. M ...

and

Lee Ranaldo Lee Mark Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer, visual artist and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth (guitar and vocals). In 2004, ''Rolling ...

alongside

Tyondai Braxton Tyondai Adaien Braxton (born October 26, 1978) is an American composer and musician. He has been writing and performing music under his own name and collaboratively under various group titles and collectives since the mid-1990s, including in ...

. A volume of city-themed fiction, ''3:AM London, Paris, New York'', followed in 2008 and featured

Henry Baum Henry Baum (born June 29, 1972) is an American writer, blogger and musician and is considered part of the Rebel Inc. writing movement. Career Baum is the author of five novels and several published short stories and prose. His book ''Oscar ...

Chris Cleave Chris Cleave (born 1973) is a British writer and journalist. Biography Cleave was born in London on May 14, 1973, brought up in Cameroon and Buckinghamshire, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford where he studied psychology. He lives in the ...

Niven Govinden Niven Govinden (born 1973) is an English novelist. He was born in East Sussex and then educated at Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University ...

Laura Hird Laura Hird (born 1966) is a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and short story writer. Hird studied Contemporary Writing at Middlesex Polytechnic and is the author of two novels, ''Nail and Other Stories'' (1997) and ''Born Free'' ( ...

Toby Litt Toby Litt is an English writer and academic in the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London. Life Litt was born in Ampthill in 1968. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, read English at Worcester College, Oxfor ...

Lee Rourke Lee Rourke (born 1972) is an English writer and literary critic. His books include the short story collection ''Everyday'', the novels ''The Canal'' (winner of '' The Guardian’s'' Not The Booker Prize in 2010), ''Vulgar Things'', and ''Glitch ...

Nicholas Royle Nicholas Royle (born 20 March 1963 in Manchester) is an English novelist, editor, publisher, literary reviewer and creative writing lecturer. Literary career Author Royle has written seven novels: ''Counterparts'', ''Saxophone Dreams'', ''The Mat ...

Matt Thorne Matthew "Matt" Thorne (born 1974) is an English novelist, writer, and journalist. Life and career Thorne grew up in Bristol, England, and was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Thorne's first book, ''Tourist'', was published in 199 ...

and

Evie Wyld Evelyn Rose Strange "Evie" Wyld (born 16 June 1980) is an Anglo-Australian author. Her first novel, '' After the Fire, A Still Small Voice'', won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 2009, and her second novel, '' All the Birds, Singing'', won the ...

. In July 2012 the site was temporarily offline due to an issue with its server provider. In 2014, a book-length collection of ''3:AM''s popular "End Times" interviews of notable philosophers (as conducted by Richard Marshall) was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

with a further volume following in 2017. ''3:AM'' was listed as being among the top 25 websites for literature lovers by Jason Diamond in ''

Flavorwire ''Flavorwire'' is a New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most ...

'' in 2013. and as being among Mark Thwaite's 5 favourite literary blogs in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' in 2014.

''3:AM'' sees itself as an extension of publishing traditions forged by earlier

literary magazines A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and lett ...

before the advent of

webzines An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer mag ...

. It has claimed its

litblog A litblog (alternate: lit-blog or literary blog) is a blog that focuses primarily on the topic of literature. There is a community of litblogs in the blogosphere whose authors cover a variety of literary topics. An author of a litblog is called a ...

'Buzzwords' to be the world's first (since 2000). The magazine features literary criticism, fiction, poetry, and interviews with writers, philosophers and intellectuals. In its early period, ''3:AM'' focused particularly on

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal ...

and

transgressive Transgressive may mean: *Transgressive art, a name given to art forms that violate perceived boundaries *Transgressive fiction, a modern style in literature *Transgressive Records, a United Kingdom-based independent record label *Transgressive (l ...

fiction, for instance

Attack! Books ATTACK! Books was an avant- pulp imprint of Creation Books founded in 1999. Partly a homage to the raw pulp writing of Richard Allen and the world of British action comics, part surrealism and part ultraviolence, the titles were overseen by former ...

Stewart Home Kevin Llewellyn Callan (born 24 March 1962), better known as Stewart Home, is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. His novels include the non-narrative '' 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess'' (2002), a ...

, Tom Bradley and

Chris Kelso Chris Kelso (born 22 March 1988, Kilmarnock, Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland) is a British Fantasy Award-nominated writer, illustrator, and anthologist from Scotland. Kelso has also been printed frequently in magazines such as Interzone (maga ...

. Its outlook and coverage was for some years

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

, particularly the emphasis on Blank Generation authors and elements of Prada-Meinhof (for instance

Stuart Christie Stuart Christie (10 July 1946 – 15 August 2020) was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. When aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo, General Francisco Franco. He was later alleged ...

and John Barker). Both

Stuckism Stuckism () is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art.Medway Poets featured prominently, from

Wolf Howard Wolf Howard (born 7 April 1968)Evans, p.36. is an English artist, poet and filmmaker living in Rochester, Kent and was a founder member of the Stuckists art group.Milner, p.80. He is also a drummer who has played in garage and punk bands, cu ...

and

Sexton Ming Sexton Ming (born 1961) is a British artist, poet and musician who was a founding member of The Medway Poets (1979) and Stuckism art movement (1999). Life and career Ming was born in Gravesend, Kent, England. In 1979 he was one of the founder m ...

to a column by mainstay

Charles Thomson Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson ...

, though to a lesser extent ''3:AM'' also carried pieces supportive of

Britart The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Golds ...

, in particular on

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United King ...

and with

Matthew Collings Matthew Collings (born 1955) is a British art critic, writer, broadcaster, and artist. He is married to Emma Biggs, with whom he collaborates on art works. Education Born in London in 1955, Collings studied at Byam Shaw School of Art, and Golds ...

. There was a further strong musical presence on the site, from an extensive archive by and about punk rockers (including several interviews with members of the

Bromley Contingent The Bromley Contingent were a group of followers of the Sex Pistols. The name was coined by ''Melody Maker'' journalist Caroline Coon, after the town of Bromley where some of them lived. They helped popularise the fashion of the early UK punk mov ...

), through to pieces by and about

Spacemen 3 Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia space rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of " ...

and other

shoegazer Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with " dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming v ...

acts. Authors interviewed several times include

Will Ashon Will Ashon (born 1969) is an English writer and novelist, former music journalist and founder of the Big Dada imprint of Ninja Tune records. Ashon was educated at Countesthorpe Community College and Balliol College, Oxford. In the mid-1990s he wo ...

Stephen Barber Stephen Barber (born 1974) is a British political scientist, political economist and author. He is Professor of Global Affairs at Regent's University London. He is also a senior fellow at the Global Policy Institute. He has also worked in the ...

, Childish,

Andrei Codrescu Andrei Codrescu (; born December 20, 1946) is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. He is the winner of the Peabody Award for his film ''Road Scholar'' and the Ovid Prize for ...

Dennis Cooper Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describe ...

Richard Hell Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television and ...

, Stewart Home, Tom Bradley,

Wu Ming Wu Ming, Chinese for "anonymous", is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna. Four of the group earlier wrote the novel '' Q'' (first edition 1999). Unlike the open n ...

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English people, English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy fiction, fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic nov ...

Dan Rhodes Dan Rhodes (born 1972) is an English writer, possibly best known for the novel ''Timoleon Vieta Come Home'' (2003), a subversion of the popular '' Lassie Come Home'' movie. He is also the author of '' Anthropology'' (2000), a collection of 101 s ...

Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Biography Education Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educa ...

Scarlett Thomas Scarlett Thomas (born 5 July 1972 in Hammersmith) is an English author who writes contemporary postmodern fiction. She has published ten novels, including ''The End of Mr. Y'' and ''PopCo'', as well as the ''Worldquake'' series of children's bo ...

Cathi Unsworth Cathi Unsworth is an English writer and journalist. After working for ''Melody Maker'' and ''Bizarre'', she began writing novels, with ''The Not Knowing'' in 2005 and ''The Singer'' in 2007, on Serpent's Tail. She also edited its ''London Noir' ...

, John King,

Helen Walsh Helen Walsh (born 1976) is an English novelist and film director. Her novels include ''Brass'', which won a Betty Trask Award, and ''Once Upon a Time in England'', which won a Somerset Maugham Award. Personal life Walsh was born in Warrington, ...

Jon Savage Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage; 2 September 1953 in Paddington, London) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, ''England's Dreaming'', published in 1991. ...

, and

Simon Critchley Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960) is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, USA. Challenging the ancient tradition that philosophy begins in wonder, Critchle ...

. The magazine also interviewed figures in the underground press, such as

Lisa Crystal Carver Lisa Crystal Carver (born November 9, 1968, Dover, New Hampshire), also known as Lisa Suckdog, is an American writer known for her writing in ''Rollerderby''. Through her interviews, she introduced the work of Vaginal Davis, Dame Darcy, Cindy Dal ...

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

Mick Farren Michael Anthony Farren (3 September 1943 – 27 July 2013) was an English rock musician, singer, journalist, and author associated with counterculture and the UK underground. Early life Farren was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and af ...

and

Pleasant Gehman Pleasant Gehman is an American author, writer, poet, actress, dancer and musician from Los Angeles. Career In the 1980s, she was the singer for the punk rock band Screamin' Sirens. Her articles on rock 'n' roll, American pop culture, sex, ...

. It has carried poetry by

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

and featured interviews by Bukowski acolyte Ben Pleasants, including with

John Fante John Fante (April 8, 1909 – May 8, 1983) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel ''Ask the Dust'' (1939) about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depre ...

and

Steve Richmond Steven L. Richmond (born December 11, 1959) is an American former professional ice hockey player. He played 159 games in the National Hockey League with four teams between 1984 and 1989. Amateur career Richmond grew up playing hockey in Chicago ...

. Former

Kenickie Kenickie were an English four-piece pop punk band from Sunderland. The band was formed in 1994 and consisted of lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Lauren Laverne (b. Lauren Gofton), drummer Johnny X (real name Pete Gofton, Lauren's brother ...

and

Brian Jonestown Massacre The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American musical project and band led and started by Anton Newcombe. It was formed in San Francisco in 1990. The group was the subject of the 2004 documentary film called '' Dig!'', and have gained media noto ...

keyboardist turned novelist

Tony O'Neill Tony O'Neill (born 1978, Blackburn, Lancashire) is an English writer based in New York. A one-time musician with Kenickie (1997–98), Marc Almond (1997–98), The Brian Jonestown Massacre (1999) and Kelli Ali (2001–04), O'Neill is also the a ...

was a regular contributor and interviewee. Past columnists have included

Sophie Parkin Sophie Parkin (born 6 June 1961) is an English writer, artist and poet. She is the proprietor of an arts club in East London, Vout-O-Reenee's, opened in 2014. Biography Born in London in 1961, Sophie Parkin was schooled at Redcliffe School, Oxfo ...

Hillary Raphael Hillary Raphael (born April 12, 1976) is an American novelist, fashion and children's book writer. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College in New York City. Works At Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New Y ...

, and Cathi Unsworth, while past editors have included

Noah Cicero Noah Cicero (born October 10, 1980) is an American novelist, short-story writer. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the author of six books of fiction and two ebooks. Cicero's stories, poetry, and essays have been published in magazines such ...

, Heidi James,

Travis Jeppesen Travis Jeppesen is an American novelist, poet, artist, and art critic. He is known, among other works, for his novel '' The Suiciders''; a non-fiction novel about North Korea, ''See You Again in Pyongyang''; and for his object-oriented writing work ...

Tao Lin Tao Lin (; born July 2, 1983) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist. He has published four novels, a novella, two books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a memoir, as well as an extensive assortment of ...

(Poetry Editor),

Adelle Stripe Adelle Stripe (born 1976) is an English writer and journalist. Work Stripe's writing is rooted in the non-fiction novel form and explores working-class culture, untold histories of Northern England, popular music, and small-town life. ''Bl ...

, HP Tinker and

Guy Mankowski Guy Mankowski (born 6 January 1983) is an English writer. He is the great grandson of the author and broadcaster Harry Mortimer Batten. He was educated at St John's College, Portsmouth and Ampleforth College. He read Applied Psychology at Dur ...

. 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. ''3:AM'' Editor Andrew Gallix runs the unofficial Tom McCarthy site 'Surplus Matter' It has reviewed, interviewed and run excerpts of avant-garde writers Lydia Lunch, Stephen Barber and Stewart Home. Later ''3:AM'' became eminent in the translation of European avant-garde poetry under its ''Maintenant'' series. Its ''3:AM'' Asia strand has also covered

culture and artists, particularly from Japan. The 'End Times' series of interviews with leading philosophers became a crucial part of ''3:AM''s identity, which resulted in collected interviews being published by

.As of 2019, ''3:AM'' no longer hosts Richard Marshall's interviews online but they remain available on th
author's website
/ref> Recently, ''3:AM'' has also shown an increased engagement with avant-garde fiction and with essayistic, philosophically-inflected forms of literary criticism. In 2014, ''3:AM'' partnered with the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

for their

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

season on the 20th anniversary of his death. In 2016, ''3:AM'' reintroduced its earlier music strand of essayistic journalism and interviews.

Editors

As of April 2020, the co-editor in chief of ''3:AM'' is Andrew Gallix, with Joseph Schrieber (non-fiction editor), Mark de Silva (fiction editor), SJ Fowler (poetry editor), Lee Rourke, Isabella Streffen, and Sylvia Warren (contributing editors).

References

External links

''3:AM'' Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:3:Am Magazine 2000 establishments in France Avant-garde magazines English-language websites French literature websites Literary magazines published in France Literary translation magazines Magazines established in 2000 Magazines published in Paris Online literary magazines Poetry literary magazines

History

Contents

Editors

See also

References

External links