OUR MISSION AND HISTORY
Electric Literature is a nonprofit digital publisher with the mission to make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. We are committed to publishing work that is intelligent and unpretentious, elevating new voices, and examining how literature and storytelling can help illuminate social justice issues and current events. We are particularly interested in writing that operates at the intersection of different cultures, genres, and media.
Electric Literature began as a quarterly journal in 2009 and became a non-profit in 2014. In addition to the essays, criticism, and literary news on this site, you’ll find our acclaimed weekly literary magazines: Recommended Reading, which publishes short stories and novel excerpts with personal recommendations, and The Commuter, our home for poetry, flash prose, and graphic narrative. Recommended Reading launched in 2012 and will publish its 600th issue on November 20, 2023. Work published by Electric Literature and our literary magazines has been recognized by Best American Short Stories, Essays, Poetry, and Comics, the Pushcart Prize, Best Canadian Short Stories, The Best of the Small Presses, and the O. Henry Prize.
Everything published by Electric Literature is available to readers for free, and as a non-profit, we rely on contributions from those readers to survive. To support our work and our mission, please consider becoming a member or making a one-time contribution. All gifts are tax-deductible. Electric Literature monetizes some book links on our site. If you click on a link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission, which goes towards paying writers. These commissions do not influence what books we feature or how we choose to cover them.
Electric Literature is grateful for the support of the Amazon Literary Partnership Literary Magazine Fund and the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses, the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize.
