Opium for the Arts

Opium7 is here, OpiumMagazine.com is seven (and three-quarters) years old, and once the Literary Death Match debuts in London, LA, Denver, Atlanta, and Denver by winter's end, that'll make seven different cities to feature the whimsy-rich series. It strikes us as absurd that all of the above is true. The real magic of Opium over this course of time, by my count, has been our great luck (there's that seven again). We've asked for and received some outlandish things: time, trust, stories, designs, blurbs, cartoons, patience. Recently, when I blasted half the planet with 'Subscribe or I'll Kill Someone,' we dared ask for money. Even that half-worked! But what I'm most proud of is that Opium is transitioning toward a more enterprising dream, evidenced in this issue more than any before it. What I've long wanted is taking shape: Opium isn't just a magazine/website/reading series, but a platform for ambitious, clever types (just check Jesse Nathan's sterling eighteen-page insert). His effort officially marks the launch of Opium's Special Projects, an open invitation for you or someone brilliant you know to pitch us a concept and a page count to curate a section in a future Opium issue. Featuring: STORIES by Etgar Keret, David Markson, Lauren Schenkman, Amy Shearn, Steve Almond, Neil Labute, Bradley Bazzle, Bill Ferris, William Clifford, Anne R. Allen and Kristina Moriconi. POETRY by Dave Morrison, Melissa Broder and Michael Leong. 7-LINE STORIES by F.J. Bergmann, Thomas Cooper, Richard Jay Goldstein, Lisa Hemminger, Julius Kalamarz, Katelyn Sack, and Chad Simpson. INTERVIEW with The Bumby's. CARTOONS by Art Spiegelman, David Shrigley, Olga Scholten, Philip Guston, CM Evans, Tucker Nichols, Ian Huebert, Amy Jean Porter, Raymond Pettibon, Quenton Miller, Sean Landers, Anders Nilsen, Jay Howell and Stephanie von Reiswitz. BEST OF THE EZINE featuring The Freedonian (Mike Sacks, Ian Lendler and Scott Jacobson).