Black Clock

Black Clock was an American literary magazine that lasted twelve years and twenty-one issues. Edited by Steve Erickson and published semi-annually by CalArts in association with its MFA Writing Program, the magazine was "dedicated to fiction, poetry and creative essays that explore[d] the frontier territory of constructive anarchy."

According to the magazine’s editorial statement during its lifetime, "Black Clock is audacious rather than safe, visceral rather than academic, intellectually engaging rather than antiseptically cerebral, and not above fun. Produced by writers for writers, Black Clock encourages risk and eschews editorial interference."

From its inception in 2004 until its demise in 2016, Black Clock featured work by Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, Lydia Davis, Richard Powers, Joanna Scott, T.C. Boyle, Miranda July, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Dana Spiotta, Samuel R. Delany, Mark Z. Danielewski, Aimee Bender, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Greil Marcus, Susan Straight, Geoff Dyer, Brian Evenson, Maggie Nelson, Darcey Steinke, Geoffrey O'Brien, Heidi Julavits, Maureen Howard, Robert Polito, Lynne Tillman, David L. Ulin, Janet Fitch, Michael Ventura and William T. Vollmann among others.

Work appearing in Black Clock was anthologized in best-of-the-year collections, nominated for O. Henry and Pushcart prizes, and two excerpted novels went on to win National Book Awards. The short story that served as the basis for Samuel R. Delany's novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders was first published in Black Clock 7.