Bomb (magazine)

{{Short description|American arts magazine edited by artists and writers}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Bomb | image_file = | image_caption = | editor = Betsy Sussler, Benjamin Samuel, Tyler Considine, Juwon Jun, Janée A. Moses | editor_title = Editors | staff_writer = | frequency = Quarterly | circulation = 14,000 | category = Arts magazine | company = New Arts Publications, Inc. | firstdate = Spring 1981 | country = United States | based = New York City | language = English | website = {{URL|http://bombmagazine.org}} | issn = 0743-3204 | logo = BOMB Magazine.svg }} '''''Bomb''''' (stylized in all caps as '''''BOMB''''') is an interdisciplinary American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplines—visual art, literature, film, music, theater, architecture, and dance. ''Bomb'' also publishes reviews of literature, film, and music, as well as new poetry and fiction.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Everything Studio |url=https://www.everythingstudio.com/projects/bomb_magazine |access-date=2026-03-13 |website=www.everythingstudio.com}}</ref>

Many of the contributing editors to the magazine are established artists, musicians, and writers, such as Kara Walker, David Byrne, Roxane Gay, and Colm Tóibín.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BOMB Magazine {{!}} Masthead |url=https://bombmagazine.org/masthead/ |access-date=2026-03-13 |website=BOMB Magazine |language=en}}</ref> However, over 50 percent of their writers are under 30.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McArdle |first=Molly |date=2016-04-14 |title=35 Years! 35 Years! 35 Years!: Celebrating 35 Years of BOMB Magazine |url=https://www.bkmag.com/2016/04/14/celebrating-35-years-of-bomb-magazine/ |access-date=2026-03-13 |website=BKMAG}}</ref>

==History== ''Bomb'' was launched in 1981<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.everywritersresource.com/top50literarymagazines/|title=Literary Magazines|work=Story Teller Art|access-date=October 28, 2015}}</ref> by a group of New York City-based artists, including Betsy Sussler, Sarah Charlesworth, Glenn O'Brien, Michael McClard, and Liza Béar, who sought to record and promote public conversations between artists without mediation by critics or journalists.<ref name="McClister">McClister, Nell. [http://bombmagazine.org/article/5650/bomb-magazine-celebrating-25-years "Bomb Magazine: Celebrating 25 Years"], ''Bomb'', Retrieved October 13, 2014.</ref> thumb|Jeffrey Eugenides spread for issue #81 The name ''Bomb'' is a reference to both Wyndham Lewis' ''Blast'' and the fact that the magazine's original editors expected the publication to "bomb" after one or two issues.<ref name=McClister/> Shortly after its founding, ''Bomb'' formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, New Art Publications, Inc., which publishes the journal.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/publisher/nap New Art Publications, Inc.]</ref>

In 2005, the ''Bomb'' offices moved from the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, New York, to Fort Greene, Brooklyn.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} By December 2019, ''Bomb'' had published one hundred fifty issues.<ref name="nysun20070621">{{cite web|url=http://www.nysun.com/article/57030|date=June 21, 2007|last=Taylor|first=Kate|access-date=June 26, 2007|title=Artists Talking Art, for 25 Years|work=New York Sun}}</ref>

== Notable contributors ==

* Chris Abani * Kathy Acker *Stan Allen *Martin Amis * John Ashbery * Matthew Barney * Roberto Bolaño * Giannina Braschi *Carlos Brillembourg *S. D. Chrostowska *Joshua Cohen *Edwidge Danticat * Arthur C. Danto * Lydia Davis * Willem Dafoe * Junot Díaz * Geoff Dyer *Nicole Eisenman * Jeffrey Eugenides * Jonathan Franzen * Sean Gill * Robert Gober * Francisco Goldman * Felix Gonzalez-Torres * Michael Greenberg * Mary Heilmann *Philip Seymour Hoffman *A. M. Homes * Gary Indiana *Jim Jarmusch *Barbara Kruger {{col-break|width=50%}} * Rachel Kushner *Olivia Laing<ref>{{Cite web|title=Olivia Laing - Bomb Magazine|url=https://bombmagazine.org/authors/olivia-laing/|access-date=2021-03-01|website=bombmagazine.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Mysterious Unfixable Elements: Olivia Laing Interviewed by Alex Zafiris - Bomb Magazine|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/olivia-laing/|access-date=2021-03-01|website=bombmagazine.org}}</ref> * Ben Lerner * Roy Lichtenstein * Sam Lipsyte * Dimitris Lyacos * Robert Mapplethorpe * Ben Marcus *Kerry James Marshall *Allan McCollum * Eileen Myles *Al Pacino *Adam Phillips *Richard Prince *Francine Prose * Claudia Rankine *Mika Rottenburg *Salman Rushdie *David Salle *Richard Serra * Cindy Sherman *Anna Deavere Smith *Patti Smith *Quentin Tarantino *Mickalene Thomas * Colm Tóibín * Ryan Trecartin *Luc Tuymans *Edmund White *Caterina Verde {{col-end}}

==Archive at Columbia University== In 2004, Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired ''Bomb''<nowiki/>'s archives, including twenty-four years' worth of audio recordings, raw and edited interview transcripts, manuscripts, galleys, and assorted ephemera.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rare Book and Manuscript Library Acquires Bomb Magazine Archives|url=http://library.columbia.edu/news/libraries/2005/20051024_bomb_magazine.html|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=12 April 2014}}</ref>

==Oral History Project== Since 2014, ''Bomb''<nowiki/>'s Oral History Project has staged one-on-one interviews with New York City-based visual artists of the African descent, conducted by curators, scholars, and cultural producers. thumb|Artists Sana Musasama and Janet Olivia Henry for ''Bomb''<nowiki/>'s 2019 installment of Oral History Project The Oral History Project is dedicated to collecting, developing, and preserving the stories of distinguished visual artists of the African Diaspora. The Oral History Project has organized interviews including: Wangechi Mutu by Deborah Willis, Kara Walker & Larry Walker, Edward Clark by Jack Whitten, Adger Cowans by Carrie Mae Weems, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe by Kalia Brooks, Melvin Edwards by Michael Brenson, Terry Adkins by Calvin Reid, Stanley Whitney by Alteronce Gumby, Gerald Jackson by Stanley Whitney, Eldzier Cortor by Terry Carbone, Peter Bradley by Steve Cannon, Quincy Troupe & Cannon Hersey, James Little by LeRonn P. Brooks, William T. Williams by Mona Hadler, Maren Hassinger by Lowery Stokes Sims, Linda Goode Bryant by Rujeko Hockley, Janet Olivia Henry and Sana Musasama by Stephanie E. Goodalle. <ref name="Oral History">Oral History Project. [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/betsy-sussler-on-the-oral-history-project/ "The Oral History Project"], ''Bomb'', Retrieved 30 October 2019.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Official website|http://bombmagazine.org}} * [https://www.jstor.org/journal/bomb JSTOR archive.] *[http://sohopress.com/books/bomb-the-author-interviews/ ''Bomb: The Author Interviews'' published by Soho Press] *[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_6256785 Finding aid to Bomb magazine records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bomb (Magazine)}} Category:American contemporary art Category:Literary magazines published in the United States Category:Quarterly magazines published in the United States Category:Contemporary art magazines Category:Magazines established in 1981 Category:Magazines published in New York City