Protean Magazine
Website
From the Editor
Protean Magazine is a non-profit leftist publication that produces an annual print magazine and publishes online content year-round. Each print edition contains approximately 100 full-color, ad-free pages, with vivid illustrations and writing that address the most pressing issues of our time.Our site showcases new pieces of freely available work—essays, fiction, and poetry—on a weekly basis. Protean’s mission is to promote high-quality criticism, journalism, literature, and art for the political left.
Protean Magazine strives to be a leading voice for progressive values and ideas through top-notch literary content. As a non-profit, leftist print and online publication, we aim to tackle many of society’s most pressing issues from an unapologetically progressive standpoint.
Our flagship offering is an vivid, full-color printed magazine published annually. Spanning approximately 100 advertisement-free pages, each edition features eye-catching original illustrations and artwork alongside hard-hitting essays, investigative pieces, short fiction, and poetry from talented up-and-coming writers as well as established names. No issue shies away from controversial topics or radical viewpoints. Past articles have covered wealth inequality, climate change, racial justice, Big Tech monopolies, the rise of authoritarianism worldwide, and more.
We supplement our annual print magazine with a frequently updated online presence. Every week new free-to-access works are uploaded to our website, including provocative think pieces, moving personal narratives, biting satire, and experimental short fiction. This provides a regular injection of fresh progressive perspective between the releases of our annual print issue.
In all cases, whether in print or online, aesthetic presentation matches intellectual rigor. Our editors seek writing and art that is not only philosophically and politically impactful, but also creative and aesthetically engaging. The final product captivates readers’ senses as well as their minds.
At its core, Protean Magazine’s purpose is to nurture and disseminate the most thoughtful, challenging, and artistically refined work carrying a radical message. We provide an increasingly rare outlet for unapologetic leftist voices and a springboard for new writers, artists, and activists who will shape the political left in years to come. Our print annual and online weekly content advances progressive values through substance and style.
Submissions
We publish critical essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, book reviews, and translations. Our primary audience is the political left.
At Protean Magazine, our pages showcase a spectrum of leftist literary talent and insight. The works we publish include hard-hitting essays analyzing urgent social and political matters from a progressive lens as well as softer creative pieces that touch the heart and inspire the mind.
Our critical essays feature both rising voices and prominent public intellectuals weighing in decisively on the issues that matter most. Past contributors have used crisp logic and persuasive prose to critique the injustices of capitalism, dissect media misinformation, explore paths to racial equity, champion LGBTQ+ rights worldwide, and grapple with threats to democracy itself in the 21st century and how concerned citizens can respond.
We also make room for imaginative works that communicate progressive values through creative metaphors and affecting narratives rather than polemics. The poetry we publish harnesses the concise power of verse to encapsulate everything from the wonder of nature to the trauma of marginalization. The short fiction pieces on our pages play with literary form to highlight underrepresented perspectives.
Interviews allow us to feature in-depth conversations with pioneers past and present across social justice movements, from civil rights luminaries to radical economists prototyping new systems. Our book reviews assess the latest publications relevant to the left, from mass-market manifestos to obscure academic tomes, distinguishing quality contributions to the discourse from less insightful works.
Finally, Protean provides a platform for translators to share influential texts from around the world that have yet to reach English readers. From French philosopher essays to collections of Latin American activist poetry, these translations allow fresh radical voices to cross borders.
In showcasing this diversity of contributors and content, our target audience is the politically conscious reader with progressive sympathies. We aim to reach those who feel the profound injustices in current establishment systems and are seeking out compelling writing that inspires engagement with the most vital struggles of our turbulent era.
Information
Editors Name Tyler Walicek
Print publication? Yes
Circulation 1000
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL https://proteanmag.com/submissions
Approx. Response Time? <3 months
How often do you publish? Weekly online, annually in print
Year Founded? 2019
Do you pay? Cash, rates vary by genre
Twitter https://twitter.com/proteanmag
Mailing Address:
Email editorial@proteanmag.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/proteanmag/