The Tangerine, #1
Belfast’s newest magazine, called The Tangerine, is a literary platform for new writers of poetry and short fiction but it also publishes writing with a journalistic bent. “We hope that by focusing on publishing long form work, we can allow our writers the scope to investigate our current cultural and political climate in depth,” write the editors. I've begun to notice a similar shift in other new literary titles: the latest crop tends to be more concerned with the journalistic essay than the short story.
We saw this in our most recent January 2017 Coverage round up, where two of our ten highlights were new writing magazines: Scotland’s 404 Ink and London’s Latterly. Both focus on combining the standards of journalistic reporting with literary devices. This is of course a staple for American writing (and magazines, it’s what n+1 does with such rigour), so it’s interesting to notice UK-based titles implement that same style especially in light of the current political climate.
The Tangerine gets its name from thinking about the fruit’s portions, and how a tangerine’s segments come together to form a whole but also exist as separate entities. As it seeks to provide a united space for a plurality of voices, this metaphor seems apt. The way that the idea is reflected with the cover and back illustration is satisfying – the full tangerine on the front is spliced in half when you turn the mag around (below).
(Also, for magazine cover enthusiasts, note the similarity between this cover and that of Printed Pages spring 2014. Isn’t it like a flattened, 2D version? They both have a tangerine, a centred masthead and a smooth beige background – everything is there but the egg. I find the comparison very satisfying but its probably entirely coincidental.)