Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026🚨A LEAN Magazine Announcement🚨 LEAN is devoted to "non-protagonist-centered-writing" but this has always been a misnomer, not accurately reflecting the work published in the magazine, or the conceptual gist, and so a change is necessary: Less-protagonist-centered writing 131
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026🚨A LEAN Magazine Announcement🚨 LEAN is devoted to "non-protagonist-centered-writing" but this has always been a misnomer, not accurately reflecting the work published in the magazine, or the conceptual gist, and so a change is necessary: Less-protagonist-centered writing 131
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 07/07/2026LEAN is back again with issue #12! J S Khan takes us on a 19th century British ship whose lively passengers are contained byt a looming event @carlterver depicts real uncanny change in modern Nigeria tuned to "the slappiness of sound" www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 031
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 07/07/2026LEAN is back again with issue #12! J S Khan takes us on a 19th century British ship whose lively passengers are contained byt a looming event @carlterver depicts real uncanny change in modern Nigeria tuned to "the slappiness of sound" www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 031
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Jill Biden charges around 50k for an event, Rachel Maddow closer to 100k...that's what ALA members are increasingly paying for... this celebrity-worship that has little-to-nothing to do with libraries which if you haven't heard are having a hard time out there...ALA is so profoundly out of touch! 011
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Jill Biden charges around 50k for an event, Rachel Maddow closer to 100k...that's what ALA members are increasingly paying for... this celebrity-worship that has little-to-nothing to do with libraries which if you haven't heard are having a hard time out there...ALA is so profoundly out of touch! 111
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 28/04/2026None of ALA's featured speakers are librarians or connected to libraries in any meaningful way. It's all about booking celebrities, paying them huge honoraria and then passing that along to members in the form of obscene conference fees. What a racket! 031
Reposted by LEAN magazineMatt Leibel @mattleibel.bsky.social · 21/04/2026Pleased to have a new story about life in a very odd small town in @leanmag.bsky.social the magazine for “non-protagonist-centered fiction” 021
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 21/04/2026We are officially LEANing into spring over here with issue #11! Matt Leibel's "Town" describes a sort of place that's bigger and smaller than the sum of its parts. Meanwhile Selen Ozturk's story "Aurora" is all about the push-and-pull between a story and its writer. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 010
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/04/2026In the spirit of practicing what I preach here's a non-protagonist-centered short story about Vikings, Christianity and what happens when the present meets the past. clereviewofbooks.com/if-the-vikin...clereviewofbooks.comIf the Vikings - Cleveland Review of BooksNone of them had wallets or cell-phones or any ID. Just Viking stuff. 011
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/04/2026In the spirit of practicing what I preach here's a non-protagonist-centered short story about Vikings, Christianity and what happens when the present meets the past. clereviewofbooks.com/if-the-vikin...clereviewofbooks.comIf the Vikings - Cleveland Review of BooksNone of them had wallets or cell-phones or any ID. Just Viking stuff. 011
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Here's an essay I wrote calling on lit mags to use their about pages to tell us about the kind of writing they publish. litmagnews.substack.com/p/what-are-o...litmagnews.substack.comWhat Are Our Literary Magazines All About?"What do our literary magazines seek to accomplish?" 021
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Here's an essay I wrote calling on lit mags to use their about pages to tell us about the kind of writing they publish. litmagnews.substack.com/p/what-are-o...litmagnews.substack.comWhat Are Our Literary Magazines All About?"What do our literary magazines seek to accomplish?" 021
Reposted by LEAN magazineSophie Drukman-Feldstein @sophiedrukman.bsky.social · 09/12/2025Check out my short story “Economy of Language” in @leanmag.bsky.social! This one was arduous to write, by which I mean that I had a great time. Very excited that it found a home in a magazine I admire so much www.lean-mag.com/economyoflan...lean-mag.comSophie Drukman-FeldsteinEconomy of Language 021
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 08/12/2025LEAN magazine is here for the holidays with Issue #10 Sophie Drukman-Feldstein's "Economy of Language" depicts a world of exhaustible speech - you better watch what you say Meanwhile Owen Yingling's "Mene Mene" is a story of uncertain resurrection www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 011
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 10/09/2025LEAN Magazine is open for business! Please send along your work. LEAN has mostly focused on fiction but we're very interested in memoir, especially the kind that evokes the contexts and conditions of life, sidelining the individual for the sake of conveying useful information 031
Reposted by LEAN magazineRose Facchini @rosefacchini.bsky.social · 21/05/2025Another translation published! Check out my translation of Diego Lama’s story “The Silent City” in LEAN. A big thanks to Semyon Khokhlov for featuring us!lean-mag.comDiego LamaThe Silent City 031
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 21/05/2025LEAN magazine is back at it with issue #9! Diego Lama's "The Silent City," translated by Rose Facchini, portrays a besieged city expanding toward the infinite. Stephen Mortland's amazing story "Three Sofias" is all about promiscuous acts of attention. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 041
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 21/05/2025LEAN magazine is back at it with issue #9! Diego Lama's "The Silent City," translated by Rose Facchini, portrays a besieged city expanding toward the infinite. Stephen Mortland's amazing story "Three Sofias" is all about promiscuous acts of attention. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 041
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 27/03/2025The new LEAN Magazine - Issue 8 - is here! Featuring Jon Conley's story of a hot day at the beach where the people aren't quite right. And a story by Jon Doughboy that stirs up a heteroglossic stew on a very clear night in Idaho. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.com 031
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 27/03/2025The new LEAN Magazine - Issue 8 - is here! Featuring Jon Conley's story of a hot day at the beach where the people aren't quite right. And a story by Jon Doughboy that stirs up a heteroglossic stew on a very clear night in Idaho. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.com 031
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 06/03/2025Very excited to share this essay about the great German author Alexander Kluge whose unusual work is all about common human feelings and "happy endings that don't lie." www.full-stop.net/2025/03/06/f...full-stop.netThe Human Situation in the Work of Alexander KlugeAll of Kluge’s books contribute to one large, ongoing project to build up a toolkit of resistant feelings that readers can use to plot their own ways out. 152
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 06/03/2025Very excited to share this essay about the great German author Alexander Kluge whose unusual work is all about common human feelings and "happy endings that don't lie." www.full-stop.net/2025/03/06/f...full-stop.netThe Human Situation in the Work of Alexander KlugeAll of Kluge’s books contribute to one large, ongoing project to build up a toolkit of resistant feelings that readers can use to plot their own ways out. 152
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 02/03/2025"It's really not so easy to find sentences that explain who you are. But maybe it's not so important, either." ---Jenny Erpenbeck 020
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 22/02/2025There's nothing essential about narrative modes and that's especially true when it comes to their relation to protagonism. 3rd person can be used to center an individual just as 1st person can be used to sideline them. 131
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 22/02/2025There's nothing essential about narrative modes and that's especially true when it comes to their relation to protagonism. 3rd person can be used to center an individual just as 1st person can be used to sideline them. 131
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Self-centered protagonism is a problem that demands formal solutions. It's not enough for a character to be "self-aware" or even to look out beyond themselves because such looking can easily turn into self-affirmation. 010
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 19/02/2025Anyway, it's a really great work out recently from @spurleditions.bsky.social in a new translation by Dana Lupo 031
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 19/02/2025The narrative does not present this primarily as a problem for the hero but rather as a problem for other people, and that's precisely because this novel does not subscribe to the modern dogma of protagonist supremacy 131
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 19/02/2025The utopian novel The Known Southern Land (1676) is the kind of early work that can help us understand the blind spots of the modern novel's insistence on the supremacy of the protagonist... 252
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 19/02/2025The utopian novel The Known Southern Land (1676) is the kind of early work that can help us understand the blind spots of the modern novel's insistence on the supremacy of the protagonist... 252
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 21/08/2024LEAN magazine is open for non-protagonist-centered business. Are you tired of lit that doggedly tracks the private concerns of an individual? Do you think the individual story is always just one element in a larger human situation? If you do, send your stuff to LEAN! 032
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 17/12/2024The 1st issue of LEAN - with work by Caren Beilin and Tom Comitta - is now in print! It'll soon be available for free in Philly bookstores and cafes but I'm also giving 10 away to anyone outside the city. Just DM me if you'd like one! 151
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 17/01/2025LEAN #7 is here! A blast from the past: Alphonse Daudet's story "A Game of Billiards" (1873) in a new translation by Elliot Menard And the present: Two stories by contemporary Italian writer Diego Lama translated by Rose Facchini www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 051
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 17/01/2025LEAN #7 is here! A blast from the past: Alphonse Daudet's story "A Game of Billiards" (1873) in a new translation by Elliot Menard And the present: Two stories by contemporary Italian writer Diego Lama translated by Rose Facchini www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 051
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 17/12/2024The 1st issue of LEAN - with work by Caren Beilin and Tom Comitta - is now in print! It'll soon be available for free in Philly bookstores and cafes but I'm also giving 10 away to anyone outside the city. Just DM me if you'd like one! 151
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 12/11/2024LEAN is not just for fiction. Memoir has all sorts of non-protagonist-centered possibilities (really!) and there are some fascinating examples from Gluckel of Hameln's Memoirs to Alexander Kluge's Air Raid to Hua Hsu's recent Stay True. So send your unorthodox memoir along! 040
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 21/08/2024LEAN magazine is open for non-protagonist-centered business. Are you tired of lit that doggedly tracks the private concerns of an individual? Do you think the individual story is always just one element in a larger human situation? If you do, send your stuff to LEAN! 032
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 09/06/2024Listen to me. You have to go to Ndakaaru. You have to find your little brother. At any cost. Do you hear? You have to bring him back here, to Kayar. Dead or alive. Even just his bones. Do you hear? --from Ken Bugul's Coming and Going at lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 021
Reposted by LEAN magazineLEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 06/06/2024The new issue of LEAN is here! It features an excerpt from Senegalese writer Ken Bugul's novel Coming and Going (originally Aller et Retour) in a translation by Julianna Blair Watson and Hugo Bujon. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 021
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 09/06/2024Listen to me. You have to go to Ndakaaru. You have to find your little brother. At any cost. Do you hear? You have to bring him back here, to Kayar. Dead or alive. Even just his bones. Do you hear? --from Ken Bugul's Coming and Going at lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 021
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 06/06/2024The new issue of LEAN is here! It features an excerpt from Senegalese writer Ken Bugul's novel Coming and Going (originally Aller et Retour) in a translation by Julianna Blair Watson and Hugo Bujon. www.lean-mag.comlean-mag.comHome | LEAN magazineLEAN magazine is devoted to non-protagonist-centered fiction, an approach to literature that formally deemphasizes the protagonist. 021
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 24/02/2024In the usual telling, the Pied Piper is a mercenary who punishes the people of Hamelin for greedily welshing on their agreement, but in Ian Maxton's retelling the Piper is a trickster figure who puts the people to a moral test... www.lean-mag.com/rats 100
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 24/02/2024You'll never look at a bouquet of dried flowers in quite the same way again after reading Tor Ulven's "The Bouquet Hanging by a Thread", appearing for the first time in English in a translation by Jordan Barger in the latest issue of LEAN! www.lean-mag.com/ulven 000
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 22/02/2024The fifth issue of LEAN is here! It features Ian Maxton's retelling of the Pied Piper tale, and two pieces, appearing for the first time in English translation by Jordan Barger, by the great Norwegian author Tor Ulven. www.lean-mag.com 010
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 11/01/2024Really excited to share this essay about the capacity of non-protagonist-centered fiction to depict common human experience through parts of the body. With readings of Nanni Balestrini's The Unseen and Fowzia Karimi's Above Us the Milky Way. www.full-stop.net/2024/01/11/f... 010
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 04/01/2024Writers of the world, LEAN magazine is open for non-protagonist-centered business! We think there's a lot more to any story than a protagonist's journey. If you agree, send in your work. And Happy New Year! 030
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 13/11/2023We can't, as Lukacs stresses, resurrect the Greek world, but we should, for our health, lean into its facts: "man does not stand alone...his relations to others and the structures which arise therefrom are as full of substance as he is himself." 011
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 26/10/2023The problem with treating a fictional character like a real person is not that it's critically naïve (Toril Moi has decisively put that idea to rest) but rather that it supercharges the centrality of the protagonist such that we read the text even more through them. 100