Community of Literary Magazines and Presses

The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) is an American nonprofit organization of independent literary publishers and magazines, that "channels small sums to little magazines publishing poetry and fiction."^[1]

The mission of the CLMP was described in a 1981 New York Times article as a "service organization,... set up to help ... literary groups.... Such magazines as The Partisan Review,... TriQuarterly and Poetry are helped by the council. The help is not large; it is seldom in excess of $5,000."^[2] As of 2024^[update] the CLMP has a membership of more 1,000 organizations/publishers, from "those with budgets of less than $5,000 to those of more than $1 million."^[3] The organization also administers the CLMP Firecracker Awards and the Lord Nose Award.

CLMP was founded in 1967 by Robie Macauley, Reed Whittemore (The Carleton Miscellany, The New Republic); Jules Chametzky (The Massachusetts Review); George Plimpton (The Paris Review); and William Phillips (The Partisan Review) as the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM) at the suggestion of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).^[4] The original leader of the organization was poet Caroline Kizer.^[2]

In 1983, the CCLM received an $80,000 grant, from the MacArthur Foundation and the Atlantic Richfield Foundation, to move its headquarters

...from small, crowded quarters on lower Broadway to 2 Park Avenue, where it will be given office space by Harper's. The new quarters will also provide a home for the council's 14,000-item library of little magazines published in the United States since 1967 and said to be the only collection covering this period.^[1]

In 1989, the organization's membership included 437 literary journals" with circulations ranging "from 500 to about 20,000, with an average of about 2,000."^[5] That same year, the organization was renamed as the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.^[6]

In 1991, the CLMP moved its headquarters to the Federal Archive Building at 666 Greenwich Street. It stayed at that location until at least late 2008.^[7]

In 1993, the CLMP had a membership of "1,100 independent literary magazines and presses."^[8]

In 2000, CLMP Online was launched as an online resource providing technical assistance and information services for literary publishers and as an internet center for information about the field for readers, writers, media, and the general public.

In 2009, CLMP had about 350 members, half with a budget of less than $10,000.^[9] That year the CLMP helped form the Open Book Alliance, to contest the Google Book Search Settlement, which it believed could allow Google, the Association of American Publishers, and the Authors Guild collectively "to monopolize the access, distribution, and pricing of the largest digital database of books in the world".^[10]

In 2011, the organization’s membership was "more than 500 publications and small presses," which was roughly double what it was c. 2001.^[11]

In April 2015, the organization took its current name.

In its initial years, the CCLM received an annual grant from the Literature Panel of the NEA; by 1976 this figure was $400,000. (The CCLM estimated its operating expenses for 1975 as $80,500.) ^[12]

In 1976, the CCLM received a grant of $439,636 from the Ford Foundation "for a project designed to improve the distribution of small magazines and to increase the awareness of the public to the existence of these publications, which, through the century, have been the breeding ground for many of our most illustrious writers."^[13] That same year, however, the Literature Panel of the NEA terminated the $400,000 annual grant to the CCLM, claiming the organization was too "'elitist' and dominated by a few of the largest and most prestigious literary magazines."^[4] The NEA funding was later restored; in 1981 the CLMP was receiving a matching grant of $496,830 from the NEA.^[2]

In 1983, however, Federal cutbacks reduced NEA funding to $68,500:

In the last two years about half the funds from these direct grants have gone to literary magazines, representing $678,485 in the fiscal year 1981, $519,702 in 1982 and a projected $407,000 in 1983. The 1981 and 1982 grants were made by the [NEA] and the [CCLM] with [NEA] funds. In 1983 the [CCLM] ha[d] no endowment funds for grants.^[1]

In 1988, the NEA awarded the CCLM "$50,000 to help develop the marketing and promotion of" literary magazines.^[14]

In 1993, the organization disbursed $1.4 million in marketing grants from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund; "individual grants range from $40,000 to $100,000."^[8]

The CLMP administers the Lord Nose Award, "given in recognition of a lifetime of superlative work in literary publishing":^[15]

• 2017 Bruce McPherson, McPherson & Co.
• 2018 Bobby and Lee Byrd, Cinco Puntos Press
• 2019 Lee Ann Brown, Tender Buttons
• 2020 W. Paul Coates, Black Classic Press
• 2021 Charles Alexander, CHAX Press
• 2022 Bradford Morrow, Editor of Conjunctions
• 2023 Christine Holbert, Lost Horse Press

The CLMP Firecracker Awards are presented annually "to celebrate books and magazines that make a significant contribution to our literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide."^[16] The first Firecracker Alternative Book Awards, or "FABs", were founded in 1996 by John Davis of Koen Book Distribution,^[17] and were presented through 2002. After the CLMP agreed to sponsor a revitalized version of the prize, the CLMP Firecracker Awards were launched in 2015.^[18][17]

The awards include five categories: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, best debut in magazine, and general excellence in magazine. In the book categories, winning presses receive $1,000-2,000, and authors or translators receive $1,000.^[16] Magazine winners receive $1,000 each.^[16] The winning titles are also showcased in CLMP's national publicity campaigns.^[16]

• List of literary magazines
• Literary presses

• Lingeman, Richard R. (June 5, 1977). "BOOK ENDS". The New York Times.
• McDowell, Edwin (March 18, 1983). "PUBLISHING: STARTING OUT IN THE LITTLE MAGAZINES". The New York Times.

• Official website