The Believer Turns Ten
The Believer celebrated its tenth anniversary at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village last week, and they’ll soon be having another party, this time at Greenlight Bookstore on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, on March 25th. The celebration at Le Poisson Rouge featured guest spots from editors Heidi Julavits, Vendela Vida, Ed Park, Sheila Heti, and a hilarious and insightful reading about the absurdities of day labor from noted author and Believer contributor Nick Hornby. It also included, to the delight of many, a dessert table overflowing with cupcakes, cream-puff strawberries, carrot cake, and free issues of the magazine’s 10th anniversary issue. It was delicious.
The Believer is ten. Woo hoo. So what’s the big deal?
Any print publication that can survive ten years in today’s publishing climate should give themselves a toast. But a literary magazine that routinely publishes things like reviews of forgotten foreign films, profile pieces on children’s books from the 1940s, innovative poetry and interviews, and an advice column by Amy Sedaris? They deserve the keys to the liquor store.
The Believer was founded by Dave Eggers and Vida, and it features regular columns by notable writers Nick Hornby, Daniel Chandler, and legendary cultural critic Greil Marcus. The magazine serves as something of a defiant reaction to a diminishing publishing industry and a diminishing demand for physical objects: it’s beautifully printed on heavy paper, in full color, thick at the spine, and full of thoughtful writing from serious writers who refuse to take themselves too seriously. “As you all know, the publishing industry is booming,” Julavits said at Le Poisson Rouge, “so we’re not going to sit up here and ask you to subscribe for a year, tell that it’s only $40, or that we’ll be throwing a raffle for those who sign up tonight.” The raffle included a week-long email conversation with Hornby, in which he agreed to answer any question about anything. Anyone who’s thumbed through “High Fidelity” has a pretty good idea about just how sweet that would be.
The night also found Interviews Editor Sheila Heti caught in a semi-awkward interview with comic artist Gabrielle Bell and author Amanda Filipacchi about the nature of creativity, habits, and where they would all be without an outlet for their artistic urges. “On the street,” Bell admitted, adding yet another reason to be grateful that The Believer continues to persevere against all odds.
