''Opium'' is a

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

featuring fiction, comics, poetry and humor. Founded by Todd Zuniga, the magazine first appeared online in 2001 and in print in 2005. It was based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and later, it is headquartered in

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 ...

. It features many notable writers and artists including

Etgar Keret Etgar Keret (; born August 20, 1967) is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. Early life Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child to parents who survive ...

Aimee Bender Aimee Bender (born June 28, 1969) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her surreal stories and characters. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards. Biography Born to a American Jews, Jewish family, Bender received her un ...

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 o ...

David Gaffney David Gaffney is a British writer well known for his flash fiction. His work has appeared in such publications as ''Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine'', '' Bad Idea'', and ''Ambit''. He was the 2015 flash-fiction judge for the ...

Davis Schneiderman Davis Schneiderman (born 1974) is an American writer, academic, and higher-education administrator. He is a professor of English and Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Prior to that appointment, he served as ...

, Alison Weaver, Jamie Iredell, D.B. Weiss, Diane Williams, Jessy Randall, Tana Wojczuk, Pia Z. Ehrhardt,

Ben Greenman Ben Greenman (born September 28, 1969) is an American novelist, magazine journalist, and publishing executive who has written more than twenty fiction and non-fiction books, including collaborations with pop-music artists like Questlove, George ...

Jack Handey Jack Handey (born February 25, 1949) is an American humorist. He is best known for his "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey", a large body of Surrealism, surrealistic one-liner jokes, as well as his "Fuzzy Memories" and "My Big Thick Novel" shorts, and ...

Dawn Raffel Dawn Raffel is an American writer. She has authored two short story collections, a novel, a memoir, and a biography. Her work has appeared in ''The Quarterly,'' ''NOON'', edited by Diane Williams, ''O, The Oprah Magazine,'' '' Conjunctions'', ''O ...

Stuart Dybek Stuart Dybek (born April 10, 1942) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. Biography Dybek, a second-generation Polish American, was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s ...

, Josip Novakovich, Dan Golden, Terese Svoboda,

Benjamin Percy Benjamin Percy is an American author of novels and short stories, essayist, comic book writer, and screenwriter. Career Benjamin Percy has published four novels, ''The Dark Net'', ''The Dead Lands'', ''Red Moon'', and ''The Wilding'', as well as ...

, Shya Scanlon, Greg Sanders, Christopher Kennedy and

Art Spiegelman Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman ( ; born February 15, 1948), professionally known as Art Spiegelman, is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazin ...

. Exclusive on-line material has included work by Martha Clarkson, Stacy Muszynski, Brigit Kelly Young and Iris Gribble-Neal. ''Opium'' hosts the

Literary Death Match ''Literary Death Match'' is a reading series co-created in 2006 by Todd Zuniga, Elizabeth Koch, and Dennis DiClaudio. Each event features four readers who read their own writing for seven minutes or less, and are then critiqued by three judge ...

, a competitive, humor-centric reading series that features four writers in a read-off, all critiqued by three judges. Opium Europe features all-new content written solely by Europeans, in both French and English, both online and off. Opium Studio, scheduled to open in Spring 2009, is a virtual art gallery that showcases everything from wit-inspired cartoons to paintings to collage to sculpture. Opium Live is an interview series that features interviews with authors and artists. In June 2009, ''Opium'' launched Opium 8, "The Infinity Issue," featuring conceptual artist

Jonathan Keats Jonathon Keats (born October 2, 1971) is an American conceptual artist and experimental philosopher known for creating large-scale thought experiments. Keats was born in New York City and studied philosophy at Amherst College. He now lives in ...

and "The Longest Story Ever Told." To create this nine-word story, Keats used a double layer of black ink and masked the words with an incrementally screened overlay. It can be read at a pace of one word per century, or as ultraviolet light fades the overlay. According to the artist, the reading of this story is predicted to take one thousand years. Keats' work is covered worldwide including in America, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Turkey, Japan, and France.20 Minutes
, June 23, 2009 In Fall of 2009, ''Opium'' released their ninth issue, dubbed "The Mania Issue". It features stories and poetry by writers including Jonathan Baumbach, Dawn Raffel, Dean Young,

Kathleen Rooney Kathleen Rooney is an American writer, publisher, editor, and educator. Early life and education Kathleen Rooney was born in Beckley, West Virginia and raised in the Midwest. She earned a B.A. from the George Washington University and an M.F.A. ...

, and

Elisa Gabbert Elisa Gabbert (born 1979) is an American writer, poet and essayist. She is the author of numerous books and is currently a ''New York Times'' poetry columnist. Biography Gabbert attended Rice University where she studied linguistics and cognitive ...

, as well as a "Fan Fiction Explosion" curated by previous Opium contributor Shya Scanlon.

Notes

External links

* * , February 21, 2006 Gothamist.com.
Technovelgy.com, Where Science Meets Fiction
Interview with Jonathan Keats {{italic title Biannual magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 2001 Magazines published in New York City Magazines published in San Francisco Online literary magazines published in the United States

See also

Notes

External links