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Reviews

Pine

Brad Cran

There is a long tradition of boy-publishing in Canada. Many of our prestigious small magazine and book publishing outfits were founded some thirty years ago by young male writers and publishers who were determined to reinvigorate the publishing industry with a kick-ass attitude, a printing press, a couple of cases of beer and a mandate to stop publishing boring has-been crap. More than one of their young male Canadian writers was photographed while smoking a cigarette—a sure sign that one is in the presence of boy-publishing. For some years the supply of high-quality boy-publishing has been dwindling, but fortunately, now we have the ambitious Pine magazine. As soon as I picked it up I knew that I was within the boy-publishing tradition—the cover features a young man caught in mid-air above a body of water in a movement that I would guess to be a back flip—which meant that either I was going to love it or I was going to hate it. I loved it, and I took it home to show my partner. She loved it too but thought I shouldn’t call it boy-publishing, which is an insult to a well-crafted, well-edited magazine. Maybe so, but Pine also fits into a long tradition of boy-publishing and its editors (including the one woman on the staff) have embraced this tradition in all its attitude and glory. For one thing, the content is excellent, with good writing and fine photographs. For another, Pine magazine is free, but they offer a subscription to anyone who is too lazy to walk downtown. If you want to submit a photo for the cover you should concentrate on “the radness” of the image. If they accept the photo you can include a biographical note, but they reserve the right to write a new one for you if they feel like it. Then again, you don’t have to submit an author photo, because they “just don’t give a shit any more,” even though this is their first issue. On the web site they even mention Hunter S. Thompson and say that fiction submissions whose titles include the word Ninja will be preferred. They use the Chicago Manual of Style but they haven’t been to Chicago, although they know a girl who lives there and they want to think about her more. On the front cover of the first issue, they declare that they are going to make serifs cool again. Pine magazine is born of the same energy, humour and determination that have produced many of our finest small presses. If you don’t live in Vancouver or you are too lazy to walk downtown, subscribe at www.pinemagazine.ca.

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