Type of site Consumer Launched 2002 | Available in English | |
Current status Not active (October 2016) | ||
Word Riot was an American online magazine that publishes poetry, flash fiction, short stories, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, reviews, and interviews.
History and profile
The magazine was launched in March 2002 by author and publisher Jackie Corley with the help of the late Paula Anderson. It was initially the literary section now defunct online music magazine, Communication Breakdown. Word Riot was headquartered in Middletown, New Jersey. It was published monthly.
In 2003, a publishing unit called Word Riot Press was developed as a spinoff of the online magazine. Word Riot Press publishes anthologies, short story collections, poetry, and novels. Authors published by the press include Paula Bomer, Mike Young, David Barringer, Timmy Waldron, Nick Antosca, Scott Bateman and Pulitzer Prize winner Gregory Pardlo.
Word Riot was known for publishing the "forceful voices of up-and-coming writers and poets." Since 2002 the magazine published interviews, fiction, and poetry by such writers as Tao Lin, Tony O'Neill, Tom Bradley, Steve Almond, Richard Peabody, Chris Campanioni, Andrew Coburn, James Chapman, Nick Antosca, Ethel Rohan, Roxane Gay, Peter Grandbois, Noah Cicero, Caleb J. Ross, Jess C Scott, David Hoenigman and Doug Draime. Work featured in the journal has been collected in The Best Small Fictions.
The editors were Antonia Crane (non-fiction), Kevin O'Cuinn (fiction), Doug Paul Case (poetry) and Cooper Renner (Reviews and Interviews). Sara Habein is the blog editor. Former editors of Word Riot include novelist David Barringer, Jordan Rosenfeld, Will Roby, Brian Ames, Timmy Waldron, G.A. Ingersoll, Martha Clarkson, Nicolle Elizabeth and four-time Pushcart nominee Charles P. Ries. In October 2016 the magazine ended publication.