''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplines—visual art, literature, film, music, theater, architecture, and dance. In addition to interviews, ''Bomb'' publishes reviews of literature, film, and music, as well as new poetry and fiction. ''Bomb'' is published by New Art Publications, Inc., a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization.

History

''Bomb'' was launched in 1981 by a group of New York City-based artists, including Betsy Sussler,

Sarah Charlesworth Sarah Edwards Charlesworth (March 29, 1947 – June 25, 2013) was an American conceptual artist and photographer. She is considered part of The Pictures Generation, a loose-knit group of artists working in New York in the late 1970s and early ...

Glenn O'Brien Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in ''GQ'' magazine and published a book with that title. He ...

, Michael McClard, and

Liza Béar Liza Béar is a New York-based filmmaker, writer, photographer, and media activist who makes both individual and collaborative works. Béar co-founded two early independent art publications ''Avalanche'' magazinePethick, Emily"Avalanche", ''F ...

, who sought to record and promote public conversations between artists without mediation by critics or journalists.McClister, Nell
"Bomb Magazine: Celebrating 25 Years"
''Bomb'', Retrieved October 13, 2014. Jeffrey Eugenides spread

The name ''Bomb'' is a reference to both

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

' ''

Blast Blast or The Blast may refer to: *Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front *A planned explosion in a mine, ...

'' and the fact that the magazine's original editors expected the publication to "bomb" after one or two issues. Shortly after its founding, ''Bomb'' formed a

non-profit organization, New Art Publications, Inc., which publishes the journal. In 2005, the ''Bomb'' offices moved from the

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

neighborhood of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, to

Fort Greene, Brooklyn Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Dow ...

. By December 2019, ''Bomb'' had published one hundred fifty issues.

Notable contributors

Chris Abani Christopher Abani (born 27 December 1966) is a Nigerian American author. He says he is part of a new generation of Nigerian writers working to convey to an English-speaking audience the experience of those born and raised in "that troubled Afr ...

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that deal ...

Stan Allen Stan Allen (born 1956) is an American architect, theorist and former dean of Princeton University School of Architecture. Biography He received a B.A. from Brown University, a B.Arch. from Cooper Union and an M.Arch. from Princeton Univer ...

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

Roberto Bolaño Roberto is an Italian, Portuguese and Spanish variation of the male given name Robert. Notable people named Roberto include: * Roberto (footballer, born 1912) * Roberto (footballer, born 1977) * Roberto (footballer, born 1978) * Roberto (footb ...

Giannina Braschi Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include '' Empire of Dreams'' (1988), '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998), '' United States of Banana'' (2011), and '' Putinoika'' (2024). ...

Carlos Brillembourg Carlos Brillembourg is an architect based in New York City. He is the owner of Carlos Brillembourg Architects, a firm that he founded in 1984. Brillembourg was an author and the editor of ''Latin American Architecture 1929–1960: Contemporary ...

* S. D. Chrostowska * Joshua Cohen *

Edwidge Danticat Edwidge Danticat (; born January 19, 1969) is a Haitian American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, '' Breath, Eyes, Memory'', was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written ...

* Arthur C. Danto *

Lydia Davis Lydia Davis (born July 15, 1947) is an American short story writer, novelist, essayist, and translator from French and other languages, who often writes very short stories. Davis has produced several new translations of French literary classics ...

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

Geoff Dyer Geoff Dyer (born 1958) is an English author. He has written a number of novels and non-fiction books, some of which have won literary awards. Dyer was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005.

Nicole Eisenman Nicole Eisenman (born 1965) is a French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), the Carnegie Prize (2013), and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial (1995, ...

Jeffrey Eugenides Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American author. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: '' The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and '' The Marriage Plot'' (2011). ''The Virgin Su ...

Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'' drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a Jame ...

Sean Gill Sean Gill is an American writer and film editor. Education Gill is a graduate of Oberlin College and Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School. He studied privately with Juan Luis Buñuel. Television Gill's television work includes editing episode ...

Robert Gober Robert Gober (born September 12, 1954) is an American sculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs. Early life and education Gober was born in Wallingford, Connecticut.Francisco Goldman Francisco Goldman (born 1954) is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. His most recent novel, ''Monkey Boy'' (2021), was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fi ...

Felix Gonzalez-Torres Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

Mary Heilmann Mary Heilmann is an American painter based in New York City and Bridgehampton, NY. She has had solo shows and travelling exhibitions at galleries such as 303 Gallery (NY, NY) and Hauser & Wirth (Zurich) and museums including the Wexner Center for ...

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character actor, character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productio ...

* A. M. Homes *

Gary Indiana Gary Hoisington (July 16, 1950 – October 23, 2024), known as Gary Indiana, was an American writer, actor, artist, and cultural critic. He served as the art critic for the ''Village Voice'' weekly newspaper from 1985 to 1988. Indiana is best k ...

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her visual word art that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative ca ...

Rachel Kushner Rachel Kushner (born October 7, 1968) is an American writer, known for her novels '' Telex from Cuba'' (2008), '' The Flamethrowers'' (2013), '' The Mars Room'' (2018), and ''Creation Lake'' (2024). Early life Kushner was born in Eugene, Oregon, ...

Olivia Laing Olivia Laing (born 14 April 1977) is a British writer, novelist and cultural critic. They are the author of five works of non-fiction, ''To the River'', ''The Trip to Echo Spring,'' '' The Lonely City'', ''Everybody'', ''The Garden Against Time'' ...

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for P ...

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

Sam Lipsyte Sam Lipsyte (born 1968) is an American novelist and short story writer. Life The son of the sports journalist Robert Lipsyte, Sam Lipsyte was born in New York City and raised in Closter, New Jersey, where he attended Northern Valley Regional Hi ...

Dimitris Lyacos Dimitris Lyacos (; born 19 October 1966) is a Greek writer. He is the author of the ''Z213: Exit, Poena Damni'' trilogy and the composite novel ''Until the Victim Becomes our Own''. Lyacos's work is characterised by its genre-defying form and th ...

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...

Ben Marcus Ben Marcus (born October 11, 1967) is an American author and professor at Columbia University. He has written four books of fiction. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications including ''Harper's'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The ...

Kerry James Marshall Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is an American artist and professor, known for his paintings of Black figures. He previously taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Marshall ...

Allan McCollum Allan McCollum (born 4 August 1944) is a contemporary American artist who lives and works in New York City. In 1975, his work was included in the Whitney Biennial, and he moved to New York City the same year. In the late 1970s, he became especial ...

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is an American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. Novelist Dennis Cooper has des ...

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...

* Adam Phillips *

Richard Prince Richard Prince (born August 6, 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a photographic reproduction of a photograph ...

Francine Prose Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center. Life and career Born in Broo ...

Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine (; born September 4, 1963) is a Jamaican-American poet, essayist, playwright, and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Her book of poetry, '' Citizen: An A ...

* Mika Rottenburg *

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

David Salle David Salle (born September 28, 1952; last name pronounced "Sally") is an American Postmodern painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and lives and works in East Hampton, New York. He earned a B ...

Richard Serra Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale Abstract art, abstract sculptures made for Site-specific art, site-specific landscape, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings, a ...

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950) is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in ''The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus i ...

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...

Mickalene Thomas Mickalene Thomas (born January 28, 1971) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel.

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín ( , ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, ''The South (novel), The South'', was published in 1990. ''The Blackwater Lightship'' was short ...

Ryan Trecartin Ryan Trecartin (born 1981) is an American artist and filmmaker currently based in Athens, Ohio. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004. Trecartin has since lived and worked in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Phi ...

Luc Tuymans Luc Tuymans (born 14 June 1958) is a Belgian visual artist best known for his paintings which explore people's relationship with history and confront their ability to ignore it. World War II is a recurring theme in his work. He is a key figure ...

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (January 13, 1940 – June 3, 2025) was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. A pioneering figure in LGBTQ and especially gay literature after the Stonewall riots, he wrote with ra ...

Caterina Verde Caterina Verde (born Kathryn Greene) is a visual artist of both American and French nationalities who currently lives and works in New York City. Verde's work is a cross platform of media that incorporates video and installation-style situations ...

Archive at Columbia University

In 2004,

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired ''Bomb'''s archives, including twenty-four years' worth of audio recordings, raw and edited interview transcripts, manuscripts, galleys, and assorted ephemera.

Oral History Project

Since 2014, ''Bomb'''s Oral History Project has staged one-on-one interviews with New York City-based visual artists of the African descent, conducted by curators, scholars, and cultural producers. Sana Musasama and Janet Olivia Henry for OHP

Sana Musasama and Janet Olivia Henry for OHP

The Oral History Project is dedicated to collecting, developing, and preserving the stories of distinguished visual artists of the African Diaspora. The Oral History Project has organized interviews including:

Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu (born 1972) is a Kenyan American visual artist, known primarily for her painting, sculpture, film, and performance work.

by Deborah Willis,

Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores Race (classification of human beings), race, gender, human sexuality, sexual ...

& Larry Walker, Edward Clark by

Jack Whitten Jack Whitten (December 5, 1939 – January 20, 2018) was an American abstract painter and sculptor, who was part of the Black Abstractionism canon. According to the Museum of Modern Art, he "invented art-making techniques that were the first of ...

, Adger Cowans by

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...

, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe by Kalia Brooks,

Melvin Edwards Melvin "Mel" Edwards (born May 4, 1937) is an American Abstract art, abstract Sculpture, sculptor, Printmaking, printmaker, and Visual arts education, arts educator. Edwards, an African-American artist, was raised in Racial segregation in the Un ...

Michael Brenson Michael Brenson (born 1943) is an American art critic and curator. From 1982 to 1991, Brenson worked as a critic for ''The New York Times''. Early life and education Michael Brenson was born in 1943. He was raised in New York and traveled often ...

Terry Adkins Terry Roger Adkins (May 9, 1953 – February 8, 2014) was an American artist. He was Professor of Fine Arts in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Early life Adkins was born in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 1953, into a mus ...

by Calvin Reid,

Stanley Whitney Stanley Whitney (born 1946) is an American artist who primarily works in abstract painting and printmaking. Biography Stanley Whitney was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on November 11, 1946. The third of four children, his father was a real ...

by Alteronce Gumby, Gerald Jackson by Stanley Whitney, Eldzier Cortor by Terry Carbone, Peter Bradley by Steve Cannon, Quincy Troupe & Cannon Hersey, James Little by LeRonn P. Brooks, William T. Williams by Mona Hadler, Maren Hassinger by

Lowery Stokes Sims Lowery Stokes Sims (born 1949) is an American art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art. She is known for her expertise in the work of African, African American, Latinx, Native and Asian American artists such as Wifredo Lam, Fritz ...

Linda Goode Bryant Linda Goode Bryant (born July 21, 1949) is an African-American documentary filmmaker and activist. She founded the gallery Just Above Midtown (JAM), which was the focus of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 2022, organized b ...

Rujeko Hockley Rujeko Hockley is a New York–based US curator. Hockley is currently the Arnhold Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Life and education Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, Hockley relocated to Wa ...

, Janet Olivia Henry and Sana Musasama by Stephanie E. Goodalle. Oral History Project
"The Oral History Project"
''Bomb'', Retrieved 30 October 2019.

References

External links