Reed Magazine

Who are we?

Reed Magazine is the oldest literary journal in California. Established in 1867—just 10 years after the founding of the CSU here on the San José State University campus—Reed has grown from a mere pamphlet to a stout, award-winning journal that publishes art, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from around the world.

Reed Magazine is also a class. A year-long sequence open to graduate students and upper-division English majors, English 133 offers students experience in editing and publishing and all the processes and operations required to produce a yearly anthology: copyediting, design, marketing, promotions, sales, distribution, and management of a robust website and social media presence. Fall semester, students review and select from thousands of submissions the material to include in the journal, which is produced and printed the following spring. 

Why are we raising the money?

Reed is challenged to maintain its considerable forward momentum within the modest budget it is currently afforded. Printing and shipping represent the journal's biggest expenses. Other significant costs include student travel to AWP and operational costs such as funding our contests—which are consistently rated among the industry’s best. Further, we are eager to acquire a state-of-the-art scanner to catalyze our ambitious project to digitize and preserve our entire 156-year archive, to be housed at the MLK Library on campus.

How can you help?

As costs climb for printing—up 35% since COVID—and for shipping, we must offset those increases by cutting pages (i.e., rejecting more submissions) or restricting the very activities that have helped raise our profile. A gift of $500 could help defray the cost of printing 50 books or support distribution to 100 subscribers.

Chief among our successful promotional activities is our participation at AWP, a highlight each spring for Reed editors. Increasing the budget for student travel would expose students to dozens of craft talks and panels and hundreds of actively publishing authors, editors, agents, independent presses, and fellowship and grant opportunities. A gift of $250 could help send three student editors to this year’s conference in Seattle.

Finally, consistent with its standing among the most competitive contests among literary journals, Reed awards prizes of up to $1,333 to winners of its annual contests. A gift of $100 could finance the Emerging Voices Contest, which encourages local high school writers and artists to publish their work.