Rain Taxi is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, Rain Taxi maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts readings, and publishes chapbook

Chapbook

A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...

s through its Brainstorm Series. Rain Taxi’s mission is “to advance independent literary culture through publications and programs that foster awareness and appreciation of innovative writing.” As of 2008, the magazine distributes 18,000 copies through 250 bookstores as well as to subscribers. The magazine is free on the newsstand. It is also available through paid subscription. Structurally, Rain Taxi is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. It sells advertising at below market rates, much of it to literary presses.

History

The magazine was founded in 1996 by Carolyn Kuebler and Randall Heath. Current editor Eric Lorberer joined the staff after issue one. The magazine is art-directed and business-managed by Kelly Everding.

Rain Taxi has been relatively free of controversy and widely lauded for its role in bringing to light books which might not otherwise be reviewed. It has been awarded the 2000 Utne Reader Alternative Press Award for Best Arts and Literature Coverage and Best Literary Journal in City Pages (Minneapolis). Editor Eric Lorberer was named to the Publisher’s Weekly “The Twin Cities Top 10.”

An exception to the lack of controversy was David Foster Wallace’s SUmmer 2001 review of The Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal (White Pine Press). The review, which took the form of a bullet-pointed index that “broke down the anthology into numerical components.,” inflamed many of the book’s contributors. See responses in Fall 2001 print edition of the magazine..

The magazine publishes relatively few dismissive reviews. Lorberer explained that “the reason the majority of the reviews are positive is that the process of selection itself is an aspect of reviewing–we’re trying to select the best of the best.” And former Board Member and Twin Cities journalist Josie Rawson notes, “There are so few avenues in the reviewing press for praise for books from small presses, independent presses, it’s hardly worth wasting space on books nobody should be reading anyway.”

Rain Taxi Review of Books (Print)

Rain Taxi focuses on literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction with an emphasis on what small press and off beat books. The review features interviews with prominent writers such as Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis is a contemporary American writer noted for her short stories. Davis is also a French translator, and has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary....

 and Tao Lin

Tao Lin

Tao Lin is an American writer. He was born of Taiwanese parents and grew up on the East Coast of the USA.He is the author of two novels, Eeeee Eee Eeee and Richard Yates ; a novella, Shoplifting from American Apparel ; a short story collection, Bed ; and two poetry collections, you are a little...

; reviewers include Sharon Mesmer, Jacob Appel

Jacob M. Appel

Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....

, Spencer Dew, Noah Eli Gordon

Noah Eli Gordon

Noah Eli Gordon is an American poet. Gordon was educated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He currently teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Gordon currently writes the chapbook review column for the book review publication Rain Taxi...

 and Mark Terrill.

Raintaxi.com

The site contains distinct content not found in the print edition of Rain Taxi, as well as information about events publications. It receives approximately 15,000 hits a day.

Brainstorm Series Chapbooks

Rain Taxi publishes limited edition chapbooks, each limited to 300 copies or less. Authors have included Kees ’t Hart , Alice Notley

Alice Notley

Alice Notley is an American poet. She was born in Bisbee, Arizona and grew up in Needles, California. She received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1967 and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1969. She married poet Ted Berrigan in 1972, with whom she was active in...

, Donald Revell

Donald Revell

Donald Revell is an American poet, essayist, translator and professor.Revell has won numerous honors and awards for his work, beginning with his first book, From the Abandoned Cities, which was a National Poetry Series winner. More recently, he won the 2004 Lenore Marshall Award and is a two-time...

, Dara Wier

Dara Wier

Dara Wier is an American poet and the author of eleven books of poetry, including most recently SELECTED POEMS from Wave Books. Awards include the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from the American Poetry Review, Pushcart Prize, San Francisco Poetry Center Prize. Her work is in Best American Poetry...

, Nathaniel Tarn

Nathaniel Tarn

Nathaniel Tarn is an American poet, essayist, anthropologist, and translator. He was born to a French mother and a British father. He lived in Paris until age 7, then in Belgium until age 11.-Education:...

, Paul Auster

Paul Auster

Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...

, Russell Edson

Russell Edson

Russell Edson is an American poet, novelist, writer and illustrator, and the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson....

, Anne Waldman

Anne Waldman

Anne 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....

 and Rikki Ducornet

Rikki Ducornet

Rikki Ducornet is an American postmodernist, writer, poet, and artist.-Biography:...

 (collaboration),Kai Nieminen, James Tate

James Tate

James Tate may refer to:* James Tate , Headmaster of Richmond School 1796–1833)* James "Honest Dick" Tate , State Treasurer of Kentucky...

, Stephen Dixon, Paul Metcalf

Paul Metcalf

Paul Metcalf was an American writer. He wrote in verse and prose, but his work generally defies classification. Its small but devoted following includes Robert Creeley, William Gass, Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, Howard Zinn, and Bruce Olds...

, and Clayton Eshleman

Clayton Eshleman

Clayton Eshleman is an American poet, translator, and editor.-Life:Eshleman has been translating since the early 1960s. He is the recipient of the National Book Award in 1979 for his co-translation of César Vallejo's Complete Posthumous Poetry...

.

Twin Cities Book Festival

Rain Taxi launched the Twin Cities Book Festival in 2001. The festival includes readings, talks, book signings, panel discussions, children’s activities, book arts demonstrations, a used book sale, and a Literary Magazine Fair.

Rain Taxi Readings

The Rain Taxi Reading Series began in 1998 and has hosted more than 200 writers.