Book Pros by Day, Lit Mag Editors By Night

Somehow, I managed to have lost the page of notes I took during my interview last week with Maria Gagliano and Celia Johnson, the founding co-editors of Slice, a new literary magazine finding its way into independent bookstores now. So there go all the great quotes I had about how the pair, who hatched the idea for a magazine that would showcase new writers when they were working together at Random House a few years ago, and then spent evenings slaving over the first issue in their Park Slope apartment. (Gagliano is now at Perigee, while Johnson works at Grand Central.) Somewhere along the line, they agreed that established writers would be an excellent draw, leading people to the newer talents, and many of the writers they contacted were more than glad to participate, which means they launched with a Junot Diaz interview and an essay from FSG‘s Jonathan Galassi…and they just announced last week that Adrian Tomine and Steve Almond would be contributing to the second issue.

Gagliano and Johnson will also be hosting a night of readings from the magazine, next Monday at the Bowery Poetry Club, featuring “a group of soon-to-be legendary literary phenoms.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.