Internet Curiosity :: List Magazine
List Magazine does just what it says – publishes lists. Twice a month, nonfiction lists submitted by “guest experts in science, art, and public spectacle, and other serious persons will be posted.” Currently, the first list, from the editor’s desk, is “How to Say a Few Words in 10 Languages That Will Soon Be Extinct.” A footnote reference states: “The Unesco Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger maps 232 extinct and 2,465 endangered languages. Half of the world’s 6500 to 7000 languages are expected to disappear this century.”
This is not silly or superflorus listmaking, but thoughtful and thought provoking, such as the one word entry that will be going up on my office door, “taturaaiiwaatista: ‘I am going to tell a story.’ Pawnee, a Caddoan language spoken by fewer than ten people in Pawnee County, Oklahoma.” And another, “nee’ééstoonéhk bíi3néhk noh héétniini núhu’ hee3éihi’ ee3eihi’: ‘If you do that, if you eat it, then you will be the way we are.’ Arapaho, a Plains Algonquian language spoken by 200 fluent elders on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and by students of the language immersion school they founded in 2008,” which incites the reader to suddenly make connections with much deeper roots and greater meaning to the contemporary saying – ‘You are what you eat.’
List Magazine is edited by Josh Wallaert, poet, fiction writer, and documentary filmmaker, who invites submissions with this limitation: “If you are a non-serious person who trades in fictional lists, such as Rap Lyrics of the 17(90)’s or Heavy Metal Board Games, you may want to send your wares to Mr. Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Timothy keeps a fine collection of that sort.”
Otherwise, List Magazine invites submissions of “lists, queries, and other species of correspondence. Lists can be funny, sad, curious, personal historical, whatever you like, but they must be true, and they must be your original work. List Magazine particularly enjoys lists that demonstrate significant research. (Footnotes and links are appropriate.)”
Additionally, contributors agree to publish their lists under the magazine’s creative commons license. Nice to see that in use – thanks Josh!
