About

ACM is independent of any institution, and has lived on volunteer efforts and grants. Each editor has autonomy and publishes work that ranges from conventional to experimental. We adore writing that is engaged with the world without being polemical or didactic. We support small publishers whenever we can—those enterprises that Raymond Carver called “the backbone of the national literature.” To that end, we run interviews with (mostly) small-press authors; publish excerpts of books from independent presses in our new Forthcoming series; and (again mostly) review books published by small presses.

Unlike other lit mags, we also review political books, and publish interviews with activists and artists. Many pieces are illustrated by original artwork. ACM was born in 1977 and became an online journal 40 years later. We usually post new work twice a week. ACM was founded in Chicago and remains based in the city within walking distance of Wrigley Field. We showcase Chicago writers as well as those writing on other continents. We publish work written in English and we run pieces in translation alongside the original languages, including French, Turkish, Serbian, Catalan, Kannada, Mapuche/Huilliche, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Arabic, Chinese, and others.

We have published early work by Samantha Irby, David Sedaris, Jenny Boully, and Ira Sukrungruang. Other notable writers in ACM are Kathy Acker, Kim Addonizio, Sterling Plumpp, Robin Hemley, David Trinidad, Stuart Dybek, Virgil Suarez, Angela Jackson, and Eve Ewing. The magazine has also included interviews with many literary luminaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Daisy Zamora, Aleksandar Hemon, and Carlos Fuentes.

The magazine has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. David Ulin’s ACM essay is published in the Best American Essays 2020. Our contributors have won Pushcarts and other prizes for their work in the magazine.

Like most lit mags, our audience is mostly other writers. We’ve had 259,000 views in the past five years from the US—with readers in the thousands from each of these places (in descending order): the UK, Canada, India, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, the Philippines, and China.

Another Chicago Magazine began in 1977 as a publication to showcase work of University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (as it was called) graduate creative writing students. ACM published as part of Left Field Press before becoming a subsidiary for a few years of the fine indie publisher Curbside Splendor. ACM‘s last print issue was #54. Two online issues came after. Then we decided we’d like to publish new work more frequently. Look for a new piece of fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, art, or a review, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Keep on top of things by subscribing and following us on Facebook and Twitter.

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We honor the peoples whose ancestral homelands were taken from them during the settling of Chicago. This land is sacred to many Indigenous peoples, including the Bodwéwadmik (Potawatomi), Ojibwe, and Odawa – together forming The Council of Three Fires – as well as the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Mascouten, myaamiaki (Miami), Ho-Chunk, Kiikaapoa (Kickapoo), Sac and Fox, and Menominee peoples.

These communities are and continue to be the rightful stewards of this land, water, and ecology, in spite of settler colonial violence and displacement. In addition we acknowledge Chicago’s large urban Indigenous population, and recognize those who honor their ancestors, traditions, and this land. We at Another Chicago Magazine are guests here, and as such we promise to respect those whose home this place is and the land we call Chicago.