Described by Two Dollar Radio as “a brand new international literary magazine” and “an emerging must-read for anyone interested in the best new literature from around the world,” Astra Magazine promised to “connect readers and writers from around the world … to bring about a new, borderless, and vital mode of reading.” It was supposed to be the “magazine of this new moment, bringing us together while, the world over, we create a new language for ourselves.”
Their first issue, exploring the concept of “Ecstasy,” included work from such luminaries as Ottessa Moshfegh and Ada Limón and sold nearly 9,000 copies. The second issue, on the subject of “Filth,” moved another 8,000 prints of the magazine. But last week, before the third issue could appear, the magazine’s backers, Astra Publishing House, pulled the plug: “We will not release a third issue, our website will stop publishing original work, and the staff will be let go,” the editorial team wrote on Twitter. “This was a business decision in a difficult year for publishing.”
I’ve written before about considering the corporate structures that prop up publishing endeavors, so it’s worth mentioning that Astra Publishing House is an arm of the media conglomerate Thinkingdom Media Group Ltd., “the leading enterprise for publishing and distributing books in China.” APH distributes their books in the US through an agreement with Penguin Random House. As Kate Dwyer explains, this corporate support allowed Astra Magazine to hire full-time employees, fairly compensate its authors, and produce two truly beautiful issues of the magazine, until it didn’t.
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