failbetter.com
Discipline	Fiction, Poetry and Art
Language	English
Abbreviated title	failbetter
Publisher (country)	failbetter LLC (USA)
Publication history	2000 to present
Website	www.failbetter.com
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failbetter is a quarterly online literary magazine. Contents | Overviews | Academia | Topics | Basic topics | Tables | Glossaries | Portals | Categories // This is a list of academic disciplines. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... ART is a three-letter acronym that can mean: Adaptive resonance theory Arlington Transit, a bus service that serves Arlington County, Virginia Advanced Rapid Transit metro technology assisted reproductive technology Anaheim Resort Transit Watertown International Airport (IATA airport code: ART) ISO 639 alpha-3 code for otherwise unassigned artificial languages... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Founded in 2000 by bookstore vagabonds Thom Didato and David McLendon, the magazine originally evolved from a popular Brooklyn-based reading series that featured many writers from the Gordon Lish school of writing. McLendon left failbetter in 2003 to pursue his own writing. Andrew Day, who had helped design the initial issues, then came back to the fold as the magazine's Managing Editor. Subsequently, failbetter's staff of editors, consultants and readers grew and the magazine became one of the more widely-read literary publications on the web.

Since its inception, failbetter has been online quarterly magazine published in the spirit of a traditional literary journal--dedicated to featuring quality fiction, poetry and artwork. In the span of just 5 years, failbetter (whose name was inspired by Beckett: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.") quickly garnered a wide readership by publishing up-and-coming writers like Sam Lipsyte, Heidi Julavits, Myla Goldberg, and the late Amanda Davis. Additionally, the magazine interviewed many of the best literary voices of the day, including Paul Auster, Charles Baxter, T.C. Boyle, Nick Hornby, Pam Houston, Billy Collins, Jonathan Lethem, Marie Ponsot, George Saunders, Anne Tyler and others. The magazine was also fortunate to interview back-to-back Pulitzer winners Michael Chabon and Richard Russo months before each won the award (the timing of which undoubtedly contributed to the magazine's readership). Sam Lipsyte was born in New Jersey in 1968 and is the author of three books: Venus Drive, The Subject Steve, and Home Land. ... Myla Goldberg grew up in Maryland, escaping the suburbs as soon as possible to attend Oberlin College. ... Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947, Newark, New Jersey) is a Brooklyn-based author. ... T. Coraghessan Boyle (T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. ... Nick Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English novelist and essayist who lives in Highbury, Islington in London. ... Billy Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet who served two terms as the fourty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, from 2001 to 2003. ... Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American writer based in New York City, best known for his novels, short stories, and essays, whose work encompasses a variety of genres and styles. ... Anne Tyler (born on October 25, 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. ... Pulitzer may refer to: Joseph Pulitzer, a U.S. newspaper publisher and journalist Roxanne Pulitzer, society diva Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism award Pulitzer, Inc. ... Michael Chabon (born May 24, 1963) is an American author best known for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. ... Richard Russo (born July 15, 1949, in Johnstown, New York and raised in nearby Gloversville, New York) is an American novelist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. ...

Initially, the traditional literary establishment was somewhat suspect of the merit of online publishing. failbetter is one of several quality online literary publications that have successfully broken that barrier. While maintaining its eclectic and sometime advant-garde nature, the magazine was one of the first online publications to be recognized by the annual print award anthologies published by the Pushcart Press as well as The Best American Poetry series.

As of the summer of 2006 the average readership was 50,000 per issue.

External links

• Official Site -- current issue