Journal of the Plague Years: The Book

Journal of the Plague Years mashes up high-quality explanatory journalism with literary nonfiction. This isn't '70s New Journalism. It's deep dives into policy (but not boring), memoir, lyric essay, satire, visual narrative (OK, memes) and curation with real sensibility. Sometimes we're short, sometimes we're long, but you can always read us on your phone.

We started the magazine three years ago as crisis response. The pandemic waned but did not disappear. The other plague lost the election. He waned, but, annoyingly, did not disappear, unless you count going to Florida.

The plague of disinformation fueled by anger and inequality has only gathered force.

We asked ourselves: Should we go on? (I can't go on. I'll go on.)

We came to this conclusion: The bending of history has only begun.

Over the past three years, we've established a definitive record of events that also is a collective diary. We're raising funds to publish an anthology tracing the story of the pandemic and the plague of politics that trailed in its wake. We knew these stories had to come out before the 2024 election.

This anthology, featuring work by Steve Erickson, Blanche McCrary Boyd, Mikal Gilmore, and many others, including poets, will be the first of the books released under our new imprint: Blue Books.

Thanks for keeping us company during the lockdown. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks for moving forward with us as we work to bring journalism back to life and inject urgency into literature.

Thanks for donating.