View source for Community of Literary Magazines and Presses

{{Short description|American organization}}
{{Infobox organization
|name         = Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
|former_name  = Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (1967–1989)<br />Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (1989–2015)
|image        =
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|size         =
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|abbreviation =
|formation    = {{start date and age|1967}}
|founders     = [[Robie Macauley]], [[Reed Whittemore]], [[Jules Chametzky]], [[George Plimpton]], [[William Phillips (editor)|William Phillips]]
|extinction   =
|type         = Nonprofit literary organization
|status       =
|services      = Supports independent literary publishers and fosters literary communities; administers the CLMP Firecracker Awards; distributes the Lord Nose Award
|headquarters = 154 Christopher Street, Suite 3C
|location     = [[New York City]], U.S.
|region_served = Worldwide
|membership   = 1,000+ (2024)
|language     = English
|leader_title = Executive Director
|leader_name  = Mary Gannon
|main_organ   =
|parent_organization =
|affiliations =
|num_staff    = 6
|num_volunteers =
|budget       = $80,500 (1975)
|website      = {{url|http://www.clmp.org/}}
|remarks      =
}}
The '''Community of Literary Magazines and Presses''' ('''CLMP''') is an American nonprofit organization of independent [[literary presses|literary publishers]] and [[literary magazine|magazines]], that "channels small sums to little magazines publishing poetry and fiction."<ref name=NYT1983 />
The mission of the CLMP was described in a 1981 ''[[New York Times]]'' article as a "service organization,... set up to help ... literary groups.... Such magazines as The [[Partisan Review]],... ''[[TriQuarterly]]'' and ''[[Poetry (magazine)|Poetry]]'' are helped by the council. The help is not large; it is seldom in excess of $5,000."<ref name=NYT1981 /> {{as of|2024}} the CLMP has a membership of more 1,000 organizations/publishers, from "those with budgets of less than $5,000 to those of more than $1 million."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.clmp.org/about/what-we-believe/|department=About CLMP|title=History|work=CLMP.org|access-date=May 15, 2024}}</ref> The organization also administers the [[CLMP Firecracker Award]]s and the Lord Nose Award.
== History ==
CLMP was founded in 1967 by [[Robie Macauley]], [[Reed Whittemore]] (''The Carleton Miscellany,'' ''[[The New Republic]]''); [[Jules Chametzky]] (''[[The Massachusetts Review]]''); [[George Plimpton]] (''[[The Paris Review]]''); and [[William Phillips (editor)|William Phillips]] (''[[The Partisan Review]]'') as the '''Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines''' ('''CCLM''') at the suggestion of the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] (NEA).<ref name=NYT19760905 /> The original leader of the organization was poet Caroline Kizer.<ref name=NYT1981>{{cite news|title=NEW YORK'S SHARE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES GRANTS INCREASES|first=Harold C. |last=Schonberg |author-link=Harold C. Schonberg|date=May 17, 1981|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/17/theater/new-york-s-share-of-arts-and-humanities-grants-increases.html}}</ref>
In 1983, the CCLM received an $80,000 grant, from the [[MacArthur Foundation]] and the [[Atlantic Richfield Foundation]], to move its headquarters
{{blockquote|...from small, crowded quarters on lower Broadway to 2 [[Park Avenue]], where it will be given office space by ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]''. The new quarters will also provide a home for the council's 14,000-item library of little magazines published in the United States since 1967 and said to be the only collection covering this period.<ref name=NYT1983>{{cite news|title=RESCUE BID AIMS AT LITTLE MAGAZINES |first=Kathleen |last=Teltsch
|date=April 8, 1983|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/08/arts/rescue-bid-aims-at-little-magazines.html}}</ref>}}
In 1989, the organization's membership included 437 literary journals" with circulations ranging "from 500 to about 20,000, with an average of about 2,000."<ref name=NYT1989>{{cite news|title=A New Chapter in the Life of Story |first= Eleanor |last=Blau|date=Oct 3, 1989|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/03/arts/a-new-chapter-in-the-life-of-story.html}}</ref> That same year, the organization was renamed as the '''Council of Literary Magazines and Presses'''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clmp.org/about/history.html|title=CLMP History|work=CLMP|accessdate=10 December 2009|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091129061042/http://www.clmp.org/about/history.html|archivedate=29 November 2009}}</ref>
In 1991, the CLMP moved its headquarters to the Federal Archive Building at 666 [[Greenwich Street]]. It stayed at that location until at least late 2008.<ref>{{cite news|title=Village Nonprofit Groups Say They Are Surprised by a Steep Rise in Rents |first=Dan |last=Levin|date=Oct 13, 2008|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/nyregion/14archives.html}}</ref>
In 1993, the CLMP had a membership of "1,100 independent literary magazines and presses."<ref name=NYT1993>{{cite news|title=Magazines and Presses Share $1.4 Million|date=Jan 8, 1993|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/08/books/magazines-and-presses-share-1.4-million.html}}</ref>
In 2000, [http://www.clmp.org CLMP Online] was launched as an online resource providing technical assistance and information services for literary publishers and as an internet center for information about the field for readers, writers, media, and the general public.
In 2009, CLMP had about 350 members, half with a budget of less than $10,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clmp.org/about/member_facts.html|title=Membership facts|work=CLMP|accessdate=10 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010209014027/http://www.clmp.org/about/member_facts.html|archive-date=9 February 2001|url-status=dead}}</ref> That year the CLMP helped form the [[Open Book Alliance]], to contest the [[Google Book Search Settlement]], which it believed could allow [[Google]], the [[Association of American Publishers]], and the [[Authors Guild]] collectively "to monopolize the access, distribution, and pricing of the largest digital database of books in the world".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.openbookalliance.org/mission/|title=Mission|author=Open Book Alliance|date=26 December 2009|website=openbookalliance.org|via=archive.org|accessdate=24 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091226081416/http://www.openbookalliance.org/mission/|archive-date=2009-12-26}}</ref>
In 2011, the organization’s membership was "more than 500 publications and small presses," which was roughly double what it was {{circa}} 2001.<ref>{{cite news|department=THE BAY CITIZEN|title=Literary Journals Thrive, on Paper and Otherwise|first=Reyhan |last=Harmanci|date=April 7, 2011|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/us/08bcculture.html}}</ref>
In April 2015, the organization took its current name.
== Funding; budget; activities ==
In its initial years, the CCLM received an annual grant from the Literature Panel of the [[National Endowment for the Arts|NEA]]; by 1976 this figure was $400,000. (The CCLM estimated its operating expenses for 1975 as $80,500.) <ref>{{cite news |date=Oct 17, 1976 |quote=The Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines would like us to say that their annual administrative expenses were $80,500 last year.... |title=Book Ends: Oddments |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/17/archives/book-ends.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
In 1976, the CCLM received a grant of $439,636 from the [[Ford Foundation]] "for a project designed to improve the distribution of small magazines and to increase the awareness of the public to the existence of these publications, which, through the century, have been the breeding ground for many of our most illustrious writers."<ref>{{cite news|title=Briefs on the Arts: Small Magazines Get Publicity Aid|date=March 30, 1976 |page =32|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/30/archives/briefs-on-the-arts-modern-museum-gets-2-early-films-small-magazines.html?searchResultPosition=3|work=The New York Times}}</ref> That same year, however, the Literature Panel of the NEA terminated the $400,000 annual grant to the CCLM, claiming the organization was too "'elitist' and dominated by a few of the largest and most prestigious literary magazines."<ref name=NYT19760905>{{cite news|title=Editors' Choice: Books Ends|date=Sep 5, 1976|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/05/archives/editors-choice-fiction-and-poetry-general-best-seller-list-book.html}}</ref> The NEA funding was later restored; in 1981 the CLMP was receiving a matching grant of $496,830 from the NEA.<ref name=NYT1981 />
In 1983, however, Federal cutbacks reduced NEA funding to $68,500:
{{blockquote|In the last two years about half the funds from these direct grants have gone to literary magazines, representing $678,485 in the fiscal year 1981, $519,702 in 1982 and a projected $407,000 in 1983. The 1981 and 1982 grants were made by the <nowiki>[</nowiki>NEA<nowiki>]</nowiki> and the <nowiki>[</nowiki>CCLM<nowiki>]</nowiki> with <nowiki>[</nowiki>NEA<nowiki>]</nowiki> funds. In 1983 the <nowiki>[</nowiki>CCLM<nowiki>]</nowiki> ha<nowiki>[</nowiki>d<nowiki>]</nowiki> no endowment funds for grants.<ref name=NYT1983 />}}
In 1988, the NEA awarded the CCLM "$50,000 to help develop the marketing and promotion of" literary magazines.<ref name=NYT1988>{{cite news|title=25 Grants Go to Arts Projects |first=William H. |last=Honan|date=Sep 23, 1988|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/23/arts/25-grants-go-to-arts-projects.html}}</ref>
In 1993, the organization disbursed $1.4 million in marketing grants from the [[Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund]]; "individual grants range from $40,000 to $100,000."<ref name=NYT1993 />
== Awards ==
=== Lord Nose Award ===
The CLMP administers the Lord Nose Award, "given in recognition of a lifetime of superlative work in literary publishing":<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.clmp.org/the-lord-nose-award/ |title=The Lord Nose Award|work=CLMP.org}}</ref>
* 2017 Bruce McPherson, McPherson & Co.
* 2018 Bobby and Lee Byrd, [[Cinco Puntos Press]]
* 2019 {{Sortname|first=Lee Ann |last=Brown}}, Tender Buttons
* 2020 [[Paul Coates (publisher)|W. Paul Coates]], [[Black Classic Press]]
* 2021 [[Charles Alexander (poet)|Charles Alexander]], CHAX Press
* 2022 [[Bradford Morrow]], Editor of ''[[Conjunctions (journal)|Conjunctions]]''
* 2023 Christine Holbert, Lost Horse Press
===Firecracker Awards===
{{main|Firecracker Award}}
The [[CLMP Firecracker Award]]s are presented annually "to celebrate books and magazines that make a significant contribution to our literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Firecracker Awards |url=https://www.clmp.org/programs-opportunities/firecracker/ |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=Community of Literary Magazines and Presses |language=en-US}}</ref> The first '''Firecracker Alternative Book Awards''', or "'''FABs'''", were founded in 1996 by John Davis of Koen Book Distribution,<ref name=PW2014>{{cite magazine|title=BEA 2014: Firecrackers Are Back|first= Clare |last=Swanson | date=May 29, 2014|magazine=[[Publishers Weekly]] |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/62511-bea-2014-firecrackers-are-back.html}}</ref> and were presented through 2002. After the CLMP agreed to sponsor a revitalized version of the prize, the '''CLMP Firecracker Awards''' were launched in 2015.<ref name=2015-awards>{{cite web|url=http://www.clmp.org/the-2015-firecracker-award-winners/|title=The 2015 Firecracker Award Winners|work=CLMP|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808114519/http://www.clmp.org/the-2015-firecracker-award-winners/|archivedate=8 August 2017}}</ref><ref name=PW2014 />
The awards include five categories: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, best debut in magazine, and general excellence in magazine. In the book categories, winning presses receive $1,000-2,000, and authors or translators receive $1,000.<ref name=":0" /> Magazine winners receive $1,000 each.<ref name=":0" /> The winning titles are also showcased in CLMP's national publicity campaigns.<ref name=":0" />
==See also==
*[[List of literary magazines]]
*[[Literary presses]]
== Further reading ==
*{{cite news|title=BOOK ENDS |first=Richard R. |last=Lingeman|date=June 5, 1977|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/05/archives/book-ends-not-so-little-magazines-demographics-trends-independence.html}}
* {{cite news|title=PUBLISHING: STARTING OUT IN THE LITTLE MAGAZINES|first=Edwin|last=McDowell|date=March 18, 1983|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/18/books/publishing-starting-out-in-the-little-magazines.html}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{Official website|http://www.clmp.org/}}
[[Category:1967 establishments in New York City]]
[[Category:Literary publishing companies]]
[[Category:Magazine publishing]]
[[Category:Non-profit organizations based in New York City]]
[[Category:Non-profit publishers]]
[[Category:Small press publishing companies]]