Tin House Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 3, Spring 2008: #35 Off the Grid

Tin House #35

by Win McCormack (Editor), Rob Spillman, Lee Montgomery

Beautifully designed and showcasing the best of both well-known writers and rising stars, Tin House has pulled out of the pack to gain a reputation as the most important of contemporary literary magazines. Outsider literature, like outsider art and music, has become increasingly popular in our corporatized, consumerist society. The Spring theme issue of Tin House examines this trend in depth. Subtitled “Off the Grid,” this special issue includes powerful work by or about people or institutions that function — or don’t — out of the bounds of “normal” society. Highlighting a unique kind of raw creativity unmediated by formal training or standard narrative strategies, the issue includes a “Lost & Found” section that contains brief appreciations of texts written outside of conventional publishing, writings done in prison and mental institutions, exile and “in secret,” and in fantastic realms beyond.

224 pages, Magazine

First published February 28, 2008

About the author

Win McCormack is an American publisher and editor from Oregon.

He is editor-in-chief of Tin House magazine and Tin House Books, the former publisher of Oregon Magazine, and founder and treasurer of MediAmerica, Inc. He serves on the board of directors of the journal New Perspectives Quarterly. His political and social writings have appeared in Oregon Humanities, Tin House, The Nation, The Oregonian, and Oregon Magazine. McCormack's investigative coverage of the Rajneeshee movement was awarded a William Allen White Commendation from the University of Kansas and the City and Regional Magazine Association. His latest book, You Don’t Know Me: A Citizen's Guide to Republican Family Values, examines the sex scandals of Republican politicians who espouse "moral values."

As a political activist, McCormack served as Chair of the Oregon Steering Committee for Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign. He is chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon's President's Council and a member of the Obama for President Oregon Finance Committee. McCormack was also chosen as Alternate Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He currently serves on the Oregon Council for the Humanities and the Oregon Tourism Commission. Additionally, McCormack sits on the Board of Overseers for Emerson College, and is a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Liberty Hill Foundation

Reviews

[Christine]

So I've been getting these letters from the editor of Tin House magazine saying like we sent you the Winter issue of our magazine even though you didn't pay us and if you were a good upright awesome person then you would paid your bill on time but you didn't so now I'm wasting my time writing to you and making you feel like you're really in trouble. So I sent my check to Tin House and a couple of weeks ago I got another letter, this time from their accounts editor saying how ultra-disappointed he was that he had to send me this letter and what a suck-ass human being I am because I had yet to pay for my subscription and I was like WTF? I paid emmer effer. And it's been on my list of things to do. To call and be like you guys suck and your bill collecting letters are the most pathetic passive aggressive attempts at passive aggression I have ever seen. But then I got this in the mail today so I guess that means it's all good and I won't have to throw down. Yeah. Because I was like so ready to do so if I had to.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Favs:
-- Ron Carlson's short story "At the Broken Ridge" (reminded me of Scott)

-- George Makana Clark's short story "Half Night"

-- Elizabeth Benedict's review of 'The Book of Ebenezer Le Page'