Bomb Magazine
Encyclopedia
BOMB is a quarterly magazine edited by artists and writers. It is composed, primarily, of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplines — visual art, literature, music, film, theater and architecture.
In addition to interviews, BOMB issues feature new fiction and poems, several 500-word "Artist on Artist" essays, and a reviews section.
Each winter issue (on newsstands mid-December to mid-March) is an "Americas" issue focusing on a specific region of North America (south of the U.S.), Central America, or South America. Spring, summer and fall issues are not themed.
BOMB is published by New Art Publications, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
The name, BOMB, is a reference to both Wyndham Lewis
's BLAST
and the fact that the magazine's original editors expected the publication to "bomb" after one or two issues.
Shortly after its founding, BOMB formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, New Art Publications, Inc., which publishes the journal.
Up to June 2007, BOMB has published 100 issues and over 800 conversations between artists. Over 150 of these conversations are posted on the magazine's website.
BOMB has undergone significant editorial and design changes since 1981, but peer-to-peer interviews have always been a major focus.
In 2005, the BOMB offices moved from SoHo
, NYC, to Fort Greene, Brooklyn
.
's Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired BOMBs archives, including 24 years' worth of audio recordings, raw & edited interview transcripts, manuscripts, galleys and assorted ephemera.
"Reading BOMB interviews was one of the ways that I began to conceive of myself as an artist." — Miranda July
"BOMBs brilliant juxtaposition of voices, mediums, and genres makes beautiful noise." — Jonathan Lethem
In addition to interviews, BOMB issues feature new fiction and poems, several 500-word "Artist on Artist" essays, and a reviews section.
Each winter issue (on newsstands mid-December to mid-March) is an "Americas" issue focusing on a specific region of North America (south of the U.S.), Central America, or South America. Spring, summer and fall issues are not themed.
BOMB is published by New Art Publications, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
History
BOMB magazine was launched in 1981 by a group of New York City-based artists, editor-in-chief Betsy Sussler among them, who sought to record and promote public conversations between artists without mediation by critics or journalists. One night, Sussler said, "Wouldn't it be great if we started a magazine where we talked about the artwork the way we talk about it among ourselves?"The name, BOMB, is a reference to both Wyndham Lewis
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
's BLAST
BLAST (journal)
BLAST was the short-lived literary magazine of the Vorticist movement in Britain. Two editions were published: the first on 2 July 1914 and the second a year later on 15 July 1915...
and the fact that the magazine's original editors expected the publication to "bomb" after one or two issues.
Shortly after its founding, BOMB formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, New Art Publications, Inc., which publishes the journal.
Up to June 2007, BOMB has published 100 issues and over 800 conversations between artists. Over 150 of these conversations are posted on the magazine's website.
BOMB has undergone significant editorial and design changes since 1981, but peer-to-peer interviews have always been a major focus.
In 2005, the BOMB offices moved from SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
, NYC, to Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Part of Brooklyn Community Board 2, Fort Greene is listed on the New York State Registry and on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a New York City-designated Historic District...
.
Interview goals and methodology
BOMB coordinates interviews between peers, often across genres or disciplines (e.g., a poet might interview a painter) in order to generate intimate, revealing, revelatory conversations that focus generally on the creative process and specifically on the subject’s oeuvre, but often focusing on the most recent and upcoming projects. Interviewers and interviewees are encouraged to participate in the editorial process, treating the raw transcript as a sort of blueprint but knowing that anything can be added or subtracted, expanded or rewritten, before publication.Art and architecture
- Carroll Dunham by Betsy Sussler (issue 30, winter 1989/90)
- Harrell FletcherHarrell FletcherHarrell Fletcher is an American artist in Portland, Oregon who creates socially engaged interdisciplinary projects.-Early work:While completing his degree at California College of Arts and Crafts, Fletcher began collaborating with artist Jon Rubin...
by Allan McCollumAllan McCollumAllan McCollum is a contemporary American artist who was born in Los Angeles, California in 1944, and now lives and works in New York City. He has spent over forty years exploring how objects achieve public and personal meaning in a world constituted in mass production, focusing most recently on...
(issue 95, spring 2006) - Kerry James MarshallKerry James MarshallKerry James Marshall is an artist born in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles and now lives in Chicago where he previously taught at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago...
and Luc TuymansLuc TuymansLuc Tuymans is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.-Life:Tuymans...
(issue 92, summer 2005) - Samuel MockbeeSamuel MockbeeSamuel "Sambo" Mockbee was an American architect and a co-founder of the Auburn University Rural Studio program in Hale County, Alabama....
by Judy Hudson (issue 75, spring 2001) - Elizabeth Murray by Jessica HagedornJessica HagedornJessica Tarahata Hagedorn is a Filipino-American playwright, writer, poet, storyteller, musician, and multimedia performance artist.-Biography:...
(issue 62, winter 1998) - Glenn Seator by Anthony Vidler (issue 80, summer 2002)
- Lorna SimpsonLorna SimpsonLorna Simpson is an African American artist and photographer who made her name in the 1980s and 1990s with artworks such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal. Her work often portrays black women combined with text to express contemporary society's relationship with race, ethnicity and sex...
by Coco FuscoCoco FuscoCoco Fusco is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist and writer who began her career in 1988. Fusco has performed and curated throughout America and internationally, and currently is full-time faculty in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design...
(issue 61, fall 1997) - Kiki SmithKiki SmithKiki Smith is an American artist classified as a feminist artist, a movement with beginnings in the twentieth century...
by Chuck CloseChuck CloseCharles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
(issue 49, fall 1994) - Valeska Soares by Vik MunizVik MunizVicente José de Oliveira Muniz, known as Vik Muniz , is a visual artist living in New York City.-Early career:Muniz began his career as a sculptor in the late 1980s after relocating from Brazil to Chicago and later to New York. His early work grew out of a post-Fluxus aesthetic and often involved...
(issue 74, winter 2001) - Pat SteirPat SteirPat Steir is an American painter and printmaker.-Education:Steir was born in 1940 in Newark, New Jersey, and currently lives in New York City. She attended the Pratt Institute in New York from 1956 to 1958, and Boston University College of Fine Arts from 1958 to 1960. She then returned to Pratt,...
by Anne WaldmanAnne WaldmanAnne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
(issue 83, spring 2003)
Literature
- Guillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín.A one-time supporter of the Castro regime, Cabrera Infante went into exile to London in 1965...
by Oscar HijuelosOscar HijuelosOscar Jerome Hijuelos is an American novelist. He is the first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.- Early life and career :...
(issue 70, winter 2000) - Jeffrey EugenidesJeffrey EugenidesJeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer. Eugenides is most known for his first two novels, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex . His novel The Marriage Plot was published in October, 2011.-Life and career:Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan,...
by Jonathan Safran FoerJonathan Safran FoerJonathan Safran Foer is an American author best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...
(issue 81, fall 2002) - Harry MathewsHarry MathewsHarry Mathews is an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.-Life:Born in New York City to an upper class family, Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the Groton School in Massachusetts before enrolling at Princeton University in 1947...
by Lynne TillmanLynne TillmanLynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. She is currently Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany and is the author of five novels, three collections of short stories, one collection of essays, and two other nonfiction...
(issue 26, winter 1988/89) - James MerrillJames MerrillJames Ingram Merrill was an American poet whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Divine Comedies...
by Thomas BoltThomas BoltThomas Bolt is an American poet and artist.He attended public and private schools. He was a pre-college scholarship student at the Corcoran School of Art and received a B.A. in English and Art from the University of Virginia.His paintings have been shown in group exhibitions in New York...
(issue 36, summer 1991) - Alvaro MutisÁlvaro MutisÁlvaro Mutis Jaramillo is a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist and author of the compendium The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll.-Early life:...
by Francisco GoldmanFrancisco GoldmanFrancisco Goldman is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. He is workshop director at , the journalism school for Latin-America created by Gabriel García Márquez...
(issue 74, winter 2001) - Michael OndaatjeMichael OndaatjePhilip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
by Willem DafoeWillem DafoeWillem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
(issue 58, winter 1997) - Francine ProseFrancine ProseFrancine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....
by Deborah Eisenberg (issue 45, fall 1993) - Laurie Sheck by Susan WheelerSusan WheelerSusan Wheeler is an educator and award-winning poet whose poems have frequently appeared in anthologies. She currently teaches creative writing at Princeton University.Her published works include:...
(issue 79, spring 2002) - Madison Smartt BellMadison Smartt BellMadison Smartt Bell is an American novelist. He was raised Nashville, and lived in New York, and London before settling in Baltimore, Maryland....
by Jack Stephens (issue 73, fall 2000)
Film and theater
- Noah BaumbachNoah BaumbachNoah Baumbach is an American writer, director and independent filmmaker.-Background and education:Baumbach was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of novelist/film critic Jonathan Baumbach and Village Voice critic Georgia Brown. He graduated from Brooklyn's Midwood High School in 1987 and ...
by Jonathan LethemJonathan LethemJonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
(issue 93, fall 2005) - Steve BuscemiSteve BuscemiSteven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
by Quentin TarantinoQuentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
(issue 42, winter 1993) - Richard ForemanRichard ForemanRichard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
by Eric BogosianEric BogosianEric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
(issue 47, spring 1994) - Michael FraynMichael FraynMichael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
by Marcy KahanMarcy KahanMarcy Kahan is a British playwright and radio dramatist. She is a prolific author of urbane comedies for the BBC. She was born in Montreal, educated at Oxford University and trained in theatre in Paris with the Lecoq School teachers, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux.Theatre Work*20 Cigarettes ...
(issue 73, fall 2000) - Wong Kar-waiWong Kar-waiWong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
by Han OngHan OngPlaywright and novelist Han Ong is both a high-school dropout and one of the youngest recipients of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. Born in the Philippines, he moved to the United States at 16...
(issue 62, winter 1998) - Tony KushnerTony KushnerAnthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
by Craig LucasCraig LucasCraig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.-Biography:...
(issue 43, spring 1993)
Archive at Columbia University
In 2004, Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired BOMBs archives, including 24 years' worth of audio recordings, raw & edited interview transcripts, manuscripts, galleys and assorted ephemera.
Quotes about BOMB
"It will always be of inestimable historical value to have provided these intimate glimpses into the personal centers of the creative process. But the interviews will have that value just because they are not merely documents for future reference. The interviews refer to the culture in its fluid and formative state, and in this way contribute to its direction. In and through them the culture encounters itself... There are plenty of venues for interpretation, but the task that BOMB has preempted on behalf of the culture is to help it find its bearing through understanding those who are helping it change." — Arthur C. Danto"Reading BOMB interviews was one of the ways that I began to conceive of myself as an artist." — Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
"BOMBs brilliant juxtaposition of voices, mediums, and genres makes beautiful noise." — Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
External links
- Jonathan Safran Foer interviewing Jeffrey Eugenides
- http://www.bombsite.com/schutz/schutz.htmlMei ChinMei ChinMei Chin is a fiction and food writer living in Dublin.Her short stories have appeared in Fiction and Bomb Magazine and are characterized by a combination of the fantastic and the mundane.She won the James Beard Foundation's M.F.K...
interviewing Dana Schutz]