Geist is published three times a year by The Geist Foundation.

Geist magazine began as a 40-page newsprint publication in the living room of founders Stephen Osborne and Mary Schendlinger in 1990. It was established to be articulate, humorous and identifiably Canadian. As a literary magazine of ideas and culture, Geist’s artistic mission is primarily focused on the art and politics of narrative, with its cultural focus being “North of America.” We publish the best that we can find of narrative essays (fiction and non-fiction), poetry, reviews, photography, drawings, comix, puzzles and little-known facts—with a special interest in fresh interactions between text and image. Our mandate is to find and encourage a wide audience for new and established Canadian writers and artists of merit. 

Over the course of our nearly 30-year history, we have published the work of more than 1,500 emerging and established writers and artists from across the country, many of whom were published for the first time in the pages of Geist.

Geist prints and distributes 6,000 copies three times a year to the largest readership ever acquired by a literary magazine in Canada (some 52,000 readers a year). Our readership extends from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island to Nunavut, with concentrations in the Lower Mainland of BC and greater Toronto.