''Opium'' is a

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

featuring fiction, comics, poetry and humor. Founded by

Todd Zuniga Adrian Todd Zuniga (born February 4, 1975) is the founding editor of ''Opium Magazine'', author of the novel ''Collision Theory'', the Writers Guild of America Award-nominated co-writer of ''Longshot'' featured in Madden NFL 18, and the co-creato ...

, the magazine first appeared online in 2001 and in print in 2005. It was based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and later, it is headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It features many notable writers and artists including

Etgar Keret Etgar Keret ( he, אתגר קרת, born August 20, 1967) is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. Personal life Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child ...

Aimee Bender Aimee Bender (born June 28, 1969) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her surreal stories and characters. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards. Biography Born to a Jewish family, Bender received her undergraduate deg ...

Tao Lin Tao Lin (; born July 2, 1983) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist. He has published four novels, a novella, two books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a memoir, as well as an extensive assortment of ...

, David Gaffney,

Davis Schneiderman Davis Schneiderman (born 1974) is an American writer, academic, and higher-education administrator. He is a professor of English and Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Prior to that appointment, he served as ...

, Alison Weaver, Jamie Iredell,

D.B. Weiss Daniel Brett Weiss (; born April 23, 1971) is an American television writer, director, and producer. Along with his collaborator David Benioff, he is best-known as co-creator of '' Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), the HBO adaptation of George R. ...

, Diane Williams, Jessy Randall, Tana Wojczuk, Pia Z. Ehrhardt,

Ben Greenman Ben Greenman (born September 28, 1969) is a novelist and magazine journalist who has written more than twenty fiction and non-fiction books, including collaborations with pop-music artists like Questlove, George Clinton, Brian Wilson, Gene Simm ...

Jack Handey Jack Handey (born February 25, 1949) is an American humorist. He is best known for his "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey", a large body of surrealistic one-liner jokes, as well as his "Fuzzy Memories" and "My Big Thick Novel" shorts, and for his deadp ...

Dawn Raffel Dawn Raffel is an American writer. She has authored two short story collections, a novel, a memoir, and a biography. Her work has appeared in ''The Quarterly,'' ''NOON'', edited by Diane Williams, ''O, The Oprah Magazine,'' '' Conjunctions'', ''O ...

Stuart Dybek Stuart Dybek (born April 10, 1942) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. Biography Dybek, a second-generation Polish American, was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s a ...

Josip Novakovich Josip Novakovich (Croatian: ''Novaković'') is a Croatian Canadian writer. Early life and education Josip Novakovich was born in Yugoslavia (in 1956) and grew up in the central Croatian town of Daruvar. Novakovich studied medicine at the Univers ...

, Dan Golden, Terese Svoboda,

Benjamin Percy Benjamin Percy is an American author of novels and short stories, essayist, comic book writer, and screenwriter. Career Benjamin Percy has published four novels, ''The Dark Net'', ''The Dead Lands'', ''Red Moon'', and ''The Wilding'', as well a ...

, Shya Scanlon, Greg Sanders, Christopher Kennedy and

Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade (comics maga ...

. Exclusive on-line material has included work by Martha Clarkson, Stacy Muszynski, Brigit Kelly Young and Iris Gribble-Neal. ''Opium'' hosts the

Literary Death Match ''Literary Death Match'' is a reading series co-created in 2006 by Todd Zuniga, Elizabeth Koch, and Dennis DiClaudio. Each event features four readers who read their own writing for seven minutes or less, and are then critiqued by three judg ...

, a competitive, humor-centric reading series that features four writers in a read-off, all critiqued by three judges. Opium Europe features all-new content written solely by Europeans, in both French and English, both online and off. Opium Studio, scheduled to open in Spring 2009, is a virtual art gallery that showcases everything from wit-inspired cartoons to paintings to collage to sculpture. Opium Live is an interview series that features interviews with authors and artists. In June 2009, ''Opium'' launched Opium 8, "The Infinity Issue," featuring conceptual artist

Jonathan Keats Jonathon Keats (born October 2, 1971) is an American conceptual artist and experimental philosopher known for creating large-scale thought experiments. Keats was born in New York City and studied philosophy at Amherst College. He now lives i ...

and "The Longest Story Ever Told." To create this nine-word story, Keats used a double layer of black ink and masked the words with an incrementally screened overlay. It can be read at a pace of one word per century, or as ultraviolet light fades the overlay. According to the artist, the reading of this story is predicted to take one thousand years. Keats' work is covered worldwide including in America, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Turkey, Japan, and France.20 Minutes
, June 23, 2009 In Fall of 2009, ''Opium'' released their ninth issue, dubbed "The Mania Issue". It features stories and poetry by writers including

Jonathan Baumbach Jonathan Baumbach (July 5, 1933 – March 28, 2019) was an American author, academic and film critic. Life and career Baumbach was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, the son of Ida Helen (Zackheim), a teacher, and Harold M. Baumbach, a painte ...

, Dawn Raffel, Dean Young,

Kathleen Rooney Kathleen Rooney is an American writer, publisher, editor, and educator. Early life and education Kathleen Rooney was born in Beckley, West Virginia and raised in the Midwest. She earned a B.A. from the George Washington University and an M.F.A. ...

, and

Elisa Gabbert Elisa Gabbert (born 1979) is an American writer, poet and essayist. She is the author of numerous books and is currently a ''New York Times'' poetry columnist. Biography Gabbert attended Rice University where she studied linguistics and cognitive ...

, as well as a "Fan Fiction Explosion" curated by previous Opium contributor Shya Scanlon.

Notes

External links

Opium Magazine

Interview of Todd Zuniga, founding editor of Opium
February 21, 2006 Gothamist.com.
Technovelgy.com, Where Science Meets Fiction
Interview with Jonathan Keats {{italic title Biannual magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 2001 Magazines published in New York City Magazines published in San Francisco Online literary magazines published in the United States

See also

Notes

External links