The End of Stanchion Magazine

The idea for it began in my car as I drove to make another delivery of sidewalk chalk and puzzles to a local family hunkered down in their home. It was peak COVID and I was picking up a few dollars as an indie toy store's delivery boy, masked and gloved. I needed the extra cash and, honestly, something to do/to get me out of the house since my profession (travel writer) seemed an impossibility with no publications paying for travel stories about places no one could visit during lockdown.

A magazine, published quarterly, in print, something beautiful and bright and bold in a scary, darkening world. That was the idea. A contrarian one, as so many were saying 'print is dead'. Stanchion would also help to occupy my time and my mind, and provide me with a creative outlet.

And I did it, first as a black-and-white magazine on thick uncoated paper and available only through Stanchion directly, and it grew. Next came books, and then Stanchion became a full-color and globally distributed magazine. Now I am ending this thing I started and built and made into a little something that was special to me and a few others.

The reasons are many, but mainly, it's ending because the winds of indie lit have shifted away from what I do, how I do it, and what I make. Stanchion Magazine, a curated literary publication that pays and prints, and operates solely from individual issue sales and annual subscriptions—no contest or reading fees charged, no donations requested or accepted, and with (intentionally) no grants or institutional support—has become untenable due to falling sales and stagnant at best subscriber numbers. Simply put, I can no longer afford to keep doing this.

There doesn't seem to be a market for my magazine anymore, and that's okay. Not all things are meant to last. I'm sad, but also so ridiculously happy it happened at all and that it made me and some others really, really joyful.

Another reason I am ending Stanchion is that I want to step back from the online 'attention economy'. I started a record label in the late 90s, a dad blog that grew to get sponsorship deals in the mid 2000s, then pivoted to a freelance writing career, got a big 5 book deal, and started and ran Stanchion magazine and books, and throughout it all I've been existing in a 'look at me, click this, buy that' world for almost 30 years. I am tired of being a part of that machine. I am tired of the way it makes me feel.

I'll be making issues 24 and 25 of Stanchion Magazine this fall and winter, and then stopping the production of future issues with new writing.

Existing magazine subscribers will continue to receive their issues and then will be offered a Stanchion book(s) to fulfil their yearly subscription or offered a refund for the equivalent of the issues due them. And then all subscriptions will be canceled, officially closing Stanchion Magazine after 6.5 years.

Regarding Stanchion Books:

I have a handful of stellar books still to publish in 2026, with Kik Lodge's The Bully in My Pillow up next, followed by Spencer Fleury's novel The Shitbird, Terms & Conditions by Amy Goldmacher, M. Kelleher's Super Shorts, and Pantry from Hildie S. Block! Nothing changes about this schedule.

There are currently no releases scheduled for 2027, but I'm leaving the door open to publishing additional books. What is for certain is Stanchion's ongoing effort to find new readers for the 30 titles I'll have published and the magazine issues still in print. I may also bring old issues back in print, as I've done with Issue 10, the best-selling in Stanchion history. I'll be doing all this online at StanchionZine.com and in-person at select book events throughout 2027. I wish I had begun doing in-person events sooner, because to gush over authors and books and issues, to display beautifully all the things I've been privileged to make and publish, and to show everything to curious readers at author fairs and book festivals has been and continues to be so god damn rewarding. It is draining af but gives me and my wife so much joy. We will be continuing to do this throughout the rest of this year and into '27.

The website, including Elegant Variations and the shop, will remain online through 2027.

For years I've been joking that I don't know where I end and Stanchion begins. It's been so integral to me as a human being and a creative person. I'm immensely grateful for all the people and the remarkable writing that has entered my life thanks to Stanchion, and for all people who have purchased a book, issue, clothes with my logo on it, attended a Stanchion event, and shown support and love for me/Stanchion online and in person. It is incredible to think about the places where Stanchion has gone—Singapore and Australia, India and South Africa, Europe, South America and right in my own backyard in Philadelphia. It is all so humbling and makes me really emotional. I am reading all this to my wife and I can't stop crying.

I started all this to put real, tangible, beautiful printed things into the world, and to be the utilitarian structure, the stanchion, that allows the light of others to shine. Even though Stanchion has ultimately failed, I think I have also succeeded. As of today, I have sold and personally shipped over 10,000 copies of the books and magazine issues I've designed, curated, edited with the immense help of Stanchion Books editor Katie Schmeling, and published. And I have paid out many thousands of dollars to magazine contributors and book authors. I couldn't have done any of this without family support-my wife believing in me and wanting me to keep going (she still does) and my daughters being honest when they think my designs suck, and encouraging me to keep improving-and without countless writers and readers taking a chance on Stanchion. I appreciate you all. Thank you so, so much for being a part of the Stanchion story. 🖤🤍