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 · 15/09/2026non-protagonist-centered writing now means, as it always should have, an extreme response to protagonism, while protagonist-centered writing represents the other extreme... LEAN is all about Less-protagonist-centered writing! 010
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The concept was prompted by the reflection that a lot of contemporary writing locates itself formally closer to the protagonist-centered poll. What LEAN calls for is writing that formally goes in the other direction, because that other direction has been relatively unexplored... 110
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Fundamentally, it means keeping the presence of any one character (human or otherwise) in check so that no one character dominates the text. And less-protagonist-centered writing accurately reflects that orientation. 110
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026"non-protagonist-centered writing" is a provocative, absolutist concept that suggests a mission to eliminate the protagonist. But this does not reflect the concept's actual scalar and relative quality (as demonstrated in essays outlining the concept and the stories in LEAN)... 110
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
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Hi, thanks for responding. ALA redistributes resources to libraries in need and should do more of that. Pursuing sponsorships involves staff labor as well as professional fundraising services. And as far as priorities, have you seen the front page of American Libraries? It's all about the celebs. 000
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Rachel Maddow's like - "you paid me 100k to speak at a library conference and I know nothing about a fundamental role of librarianship hahaha" 010
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
LEAN 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
LEAN 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
LEAN 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
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 15/01/2026don't you want to "burn this place down" lol - but in all seriousness the important thing is the viability of creativity and its independence from the creative industries 010
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
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 12/06/2025I wonder how you can tell they didn't want to engage...because the exchange is awkward? I've lived in the Midwest, too, and you can talk to people, and sure there can be some awkwardness in any convo with a stranger but that's par for the course and often clears quickly 010
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 12/06/2025but isn't that a reason for talking to people and explaining? this is just a way of keeping walls up 110
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
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 10/05/2025thanks for the interest but I'm out of those copies...I'm planning on doing another print run sometime in the next month or so 110
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 · 06/03/2025Thanks so much to @fullstopmag.bsky.social and @kailanthropy.bsky.social for editing! 000
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 · 22/02/2025The deciding factor is often how much narrative attention a character receives, how present they are in the text, how much space they literally take up. 020
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 · 19/02/2025Anyway, it's a really great work out recently from @spurleditions.bsky.social in a new translation by Dana Lupo 031
LEAN 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
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 19/02/2025rather it results in a natural concern for the welfare of the people that come into the hero's life: "for it seems that I lived only by causing the death of those who were trying their hardest to save my life." 000
LEAN magazine @leanmag.bsky.social · 19/02/2025The early life of the hero of this novel is marked by the loss of his parents and several other people attempting to take care of him. But this does not, as it would in the modern novel, lead to self-centered reflexivity (I'm cursed, I'm a problem, etc.)... 110
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