Rebel Inc. is a revived once iconic Scots counter-culture publishing company and

literary journal 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 letters ...

, founded by Kevin Williamson in 1992 with the upfront but accurate slogan of "F*** the Mainstream!". Duncan Mclean, Gordon Legge, Barry Graham and Sandie Craigie were involved in setting it up. For a time Sandie was its co-editor. It adroitly managed to tap into the darker undercurrent of Scottish society in the post- Thatcher era, capturing its counter-cultural rejection of mainstream values in its ethos. ''Rebel Inc Magazine'' ran to five issues between 1992 and 1994, publishing new work by writers such as

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist, playwright and short story writer. His 1993 novel '' Trainspotting'' was made into a film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short fil ...

Alan Warner Alan Warner (born 1964) is a Scottish novelist who grew up in Connel, near Oban. His notable novels include ''Morvern Callar'' and '' The Sopranos'' – the latter being the inspiration for the play ''Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour'' and its s ...

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'' ( ...

, Toni Davidson and John King before any of them had books in print. Issue 4 featured an infamous 'Ecstasy Interview' - an unedited conversation between Kevin Williamson and

whilst both editor and writer were under the influence of the psychoactive drug, MDMA. In his blog of February 2008, Kevin Williamson wrote "I pulled a stunt on Radio Scotland which satisfied the Malcolm McLaren criteria of "establishing the name", as related to one of the finest exploitation movies of all time: ''The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle''." In 1996, following the success of ''Trainspotting'' by

, Rebel Inc. was incorporated into the

Canongate Books Canongate Books (trading as Canongate) is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Canongate area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner '' Life of Pi''. Canongate wa ...

stable of independent publishers. A steady stream of eclectic but edgy releases then ensued, with out-of-print editions by the likes of

Alexander Trocchi Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a Scottish novelist. Early life and career Trocchi was born in Glasgow to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie ...

and

Sadegh Hedayat Sadegh Hedayat ( fa, صادق هدایت ; 17 February 1903 – 9 April 1951) was an Iranian writer and translator. Best known for his novel '' The Blind Owl'', he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in their car ...

, themselves substantially influential on many of the recent darker Scots authors like Welsh and

. It also brought on a new generation of foreign writers such as Henry Baum,

Joel Rose Joel Rose is an American novelist. Career His novels include ''The Blackest Bird'' (2007), '' Kill the Poor'' (1988), and ''Kill Kill Faster Faster'' (1988). He also authored the urban historical, ''New York Sawed in Half: An Urban Historical'' ( ...

and Ray Loriga, who shared its outlook nonetheless. The Rebel Inc. imprint came to a premature end as a result of increasing friction between Williamson and Canongate over the creative and commercial direction of the imprint, which led to Williamson's resignation and departure from the company in January 2001. The imprint ended abruptly at the very height of its success although Canongate would later claim this was due to financial restructuring. Many of Rebel Inc.'s titles and authors were subsequently transferred into the main Canongate itinerary. In 2012 Williamson announced plans to revive Rebel Inc. on its 20th anniversary.

References

External links

BBC profileCanongate's site
Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1992 Magazines disestablished in 1994 1992 establishments in Scotland 1994 disestablishments in Scotland {{UK-lit-mag-stub