Protean Magazine
@proteanmag.com
An independent leftist magazine collecting criticism, essays, fiction, poetry, and art • Support our work at www.patreon.com/proteanmag • www.proteanmag.com/
November 26, 2025 at 1:42 AM
We’re committed to providing our viewers with an advertisement and paywall free reading experience. To do so, we depend on our audience’s support. Consider becoming a patron of ours on Patreon or purchasing a print edition.
Thank you for your constant support!
Thank you for your constant support!
November 23, 2025 at 2:01 PM
We’re committed to providing our viewers with an advertisement and paywall free reading experience. To do so, we depend on our audience’s support. Consider becoming a patron of ours on Patreon or purchasing a print edition.
Thank you for your constant support!
Thank you for your constant support!
An excerpt from Joni Prince's "Clarification Letter, Nov 2023"
proteanmag.com/2025/05/15/c...
proteanmag.com/2025/05/15/c...
November 21, 2025 at 2:03 PM
An excerpt from Joni Prince's "Clarification Letter, Nov 2023"
proteanmag.com/2025/05/15/c...
proteanmag.com/2025/05/15/c...
From the pages of Protean Magazine Issue V: Contra Temps --
November 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
From the pages of Protean Magazine Issue V: Contra Temps --
“Restricting the right to read, in this way, is a tactic intimately bound up with the history of American racism and white supremacy.”
proteanmag.com/2021/11/29/t...
proteanmag.com/2021/11/29/t...
November 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
“Restricting the right to read, in this way, is a tactic intimately bound up with the history of American racism and white supremacy.”
proteanmag.com/2021/11/29/t...
proteanmag.com/2021/11/29/t...
From the Protean Archive -
“Around the world, vast labor movements merged economic and radical political demands; they pioneered mass political parties that seemed to be driven by an irresistible momentum towards victory, even electoral victory."
proteanmag.com/2024/06/16/f...
“Around the world, vast labor movements merged economic and radical political demands; they pioneered mass political parties that seemed to be driven by an irresistible momentum towards victory, even electoral victory."
proteanmag.com/2024/06/16/f...
October 31, 2025 at 1:04 PM
From the Protean Archive -
“Around the world, vast labor movements merged economic and radical political demands; they pioneered mass political parties that seemed to be driven by an irresistible momentum towards victory, even electoral victory."
proteanmag.com/2024/06/16/f...
“Around the world, vast labor movements merged economic and radical political demands; they pioneered mass political parties that seemed to be driven by an irresistible momentum towards victory, even electoral victory."
proteanmag.com/2024/06/16/f...
Part of a series of archival ekphrasis, Eric Abalajon's "filipino laborers working as the boss looks on" interprets the visual remnants of class struggle from economic periphery to imperial core.
proteanmag.com/2025/10/28/f...
proteanmag.com/2025/10/28/f...
October 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Part of a series of archival ekphrasis, Eric Abalajon's "filipino laborers working as the boss looks on" interprets the visual remnants of class struggle from economic periphery to imperial core.
proteanmag.com/2025/10/28/f...
proteanmag.com/2025/10/28/f...
We thank you for your support of Protean Magazine. Protean depends on our Patreon members—and thanks to your generosity, we're able to continue publishing the work we love.
patreon.com/proteanmag
patreon.com/proteanmag
October 22, 2025 at 1:02 PM
We thank you for your support of Protean Magazine. Protean depends on our Patreon members—and thanks to your generosity, we're able to continue publishing the work we love.
patreon.com/proteanmag
patreon.com/proteanmag
All poetry submissions—both for print and for our online section—are now closed. Thanks to all who have submitted!
September 28, 2025 at 9:42 PM
All poetry submissions—both for print and for our online section—are now closed. Thanks to all who have submitted!
Farewell to The Pink House—depicted here in a piece by 20th Century Collages that appears in Protean Issue IV.
Read Luke's Issue IV story, "Newburyport, MA": proteanmag.com/2023/07/31/n...
Read Luke's Issue IV story, "Newburyport, MA": proteanmag.com/2023/07/31/n...
July 4, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Farewell to The Pink House—depicted here in a piece by 20th Century Collages that appears in Protean Issue IV.
Read Luke's Issue IV story, "Newburyport, MA": proteanmag.com/2023/07/31/n...
Read Luke's Issue IV story, "Newburyport, MA": proteanmag.com/2023/07/31/n...
Our online Poetry section has also reopened!
Likewise, before submitting poems (whether for print or online), please review ALL guidelines, format your pitch correctly, and submit to the appropriate inbox.
We'd also like to call particular attention to our most recent submissions policy update:
Likewise, before submitting poems (whether for print or online), please review ALL guidelines, format your pitch correctly, and submit to the appropriate inbox.
We'd also like to call particular attention to our most recent submissions policy update:
June 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Our online Poetry section has also reopened!
Likewise, before submitting poems (whether for print or online), please review ALL guidelines, format your pitch correctly, and submit to the appropriate inbox.
We'd also like to call particular attention to our most recent submissions policy update:
Likewise, before submitting poems (whether for print or online), please review ALL guidelines, format your pitch correctly, and submit to the appropriate inbox.
We'd also like to call particular attention to our most recent submissions policy update:
Print submissions for Protean Magazine: Issue VI are now open.
Send us your most affecting poems, or your best essay pitches and/or drafts—we want to read your incisive, rigorous, lyrical critiques of American decay, social pathology, and imperial decline.
Guidelines: proteanmag.com/submissions
Send us your most affecting poems, or your best essay pitches and/or drafts—we want to read your incisive, rigorous, lyrical critiques of American decay, social pathology, and imperial decline.
Guidelines: proteanmag.com/submissions
June 29, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Print submissions for Protean Magazine: Issue VI are now open.
Send us your most affecting poems, or your best essay pitches and/or drafts—we want to read your incisive, rigorous, lyrical critiques of American decay, social pathology, and imperial decline.
Guidelines: proteanmag.com/submissions
Send us your most affecting poems, or your best essay pitches and/or drafts—we want to read your incisive, rigorous, lyrical critiques of American decay, social pathology, and imperial decline.
Guidelines: proteanmag.com/submissions
Thanks to James Folta of LitHub (@literaryhub.bsky.social) for dropping by our event last week and giving their kindly recommendation.
June 16, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Thanks to James Folta of LitHub (@literaryhub.bsky.social) for dropping by our event last week and giving their kindly recommendation.
To our readers, supporters, and friends: We're very pleased to invite you to a world first—a live Protean event.
On June 7th at the Verso Books space in NYC, we'll be hosting readings by exceptional poets, fundraising, and celebrating the 8th year of the magazine. Space is limited!
Details below:
On June 7th at the Verso Books space in NYC, we'll be hosting readings by exceptional poets, fundraising, and celebrating the 8th year of the magazine. Space is limited!
Details below:
May 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM
To our readers, supporters, and friends: We're very pleased to invite you to a world first—a live Protean event.
On June 7th at the Verso Books space in NYC, we'll be hosting readings by exceptional poets, fundraising, and celebrating the 8th year of the magazine. Space is limited!
Details below:
On June 7th at the Verso Books space in NYC, we'll be hosting readings by exceptional poets, fundraising, and celebrating the 8th year of the magazine. Space is limited!
Details below:
If you're in north Texas, come see us at the Dallas Art Book Fair this weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm at the Dallas Contemporary Museum.
March 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
If you're in north Texas, come see us at the Dallas Art Book Fair this weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm at the Dallas Contemporary Museum.
We're so grateful to all those who backed us via our pre-sale and on Patreon. Now that our contributing readers have been sent their copies of Issue V, we're making it available to all.
You can now pick up Protean Issue V: Contra Temps in print and digital editions—see below.
You can now pick up Protean Issue V: Contra Temps in print and digital editions—see below.
March 3, 2025 at 10:25 PM
We're so grateful to all those who backed us via our pre-sale and on Patreon. Now that our contributing readers have been sent their copies of Issue V, we're making it available to all.
You can now pick up Protean Issue V: Contra Temps in print and digital editions—see below.
You can now pick up Protean Issue V: Contra Temps in print and digital editions—see below.
We’re very pleased to share that at long last, we’ve received the full print run of Protean Issue V: Contra Temps.
All pre-orders are shipping now. Patrons, keep an eye out for your free-issue coupon. To everyone else—you’ll soon be able to order a copy as well.
Our cover:
All pre-orders are shipping now. Patrons, keep an eye out for your free-issue coupon. To everyone else—you’ll soon be able to order a copy as well.
Our cover:
February 21, 2025 at 9:01 PM
We’re very pleased to share that at long last, we’ve received the full print run of Protean Issue V: Contra Temps.
All pre-orders are shipping now. Patrons, keep an eye out for your free-issue coupon. To everyone else—you’ll soon be able to order a copy as well.
Our cover:
All pre-orders are shipping now. Patrons, keep an eye out for your free-issue coupon. To everyone else—you’ll soon be able to order a copy as well.
Our cover:
August 15, 2024 at 7:33 PM
Read our full statement here:
October 23, 2023 at 7:07 PM
Read our full statement here:
Plus, our full cover design:
July 22, 2023 at 8:10 PM
Plus, our full cover design:
We're excited to give you a first look inside Issue IV: Special Relativity. Check out these lovingly designed spreads from within the issue—and get ready for Monday the 24th, when it will be fully released, in print and digital editions.
July 22, 2023 at 6:28 PM
We're excited to give you a first look inside Issue IV: Special Relativity. Check out these lovingly designed spreads from within the issue—and get ready for Monday the 24th, when it will be fully released, in print and digital editions.