The Lifted Brow

The Lifted Brow is both the name of an Australian not-for-profit literary organisation (also less well known as the TLB Society, Inc.), and the quarterly print literary magazine/journal it publishes. It also posts original work on its website, stages events, runs writing contests, and more. It publishes its books through its Brow Books imprint. Originating in Brisbane, the headquarters was established in Melbourne.

History

TLB was established in 2007 by Ronnie Scott, and run since early 2012 by Sam Cooney. It is a not-for-profit literary organisation, which also runs the book publishing imprint Brow Books. It has been funded in part by Arts Victoria and the Australia Council. The organisation is run by volunteers.[1]

In April 2020 The Lifted Brow announced a pause in operations following an investigation by the board into sexual misconduct and unprofessional conduct by a TLB worker. [2] Rumours were reported of some senior staff having inappropriate relations with and taking advantage of unpaid junior staff. Following this investigation Cooney, along with the rest of the board, resigned. A new board installed themselves in mid-2020.[3]

The Lifted Brow
The Lifted Brow
EditorsJustin Wolfers, Jini Maxwell
CategoriesLiterary magazines
FrequencyQuarterly
PublisherSam Cooney
Year founded2007
CountryAustralia
Based inMelbourne
LanguageEnglish
Websitetheliftedbrow.com
ISSN1835-5668

The Lifted Brow is an Australian quarterly print literary magazine/journal. There is also a digital version available.

History and profile

The Lifted Brow was established in 2007 by Ronnie Scott and edited by him until 2012. In 2012 Sam Cooney took as editor until 2014 when he handed over editorial duties to Ellena Savage, Stephanie Van Schilt and Gillian Terzis who edited the publication for a couple of years, before Annabel Brady-Brown and Zoe Dzunko took over in 2016. The magazine is currently edited by Justin Wolfers and Jini Maxwell.[4]

Loosely falling under the literary journal category, the magazine features longform non-fiction and fiction, flash fiction, commentary, criticism, poetry, as well as artwork, drawings, comics, and music. Early versions of the publication were a perfect-bound journal format, and then in its middle years it embraced the tabloid newsprint format, before in 2015 evolving to the high-quality matte magazine format that is currently published four times annually. For a few years editions of The Lifted Brow included an arts and cultural lift-out called 'Middlebrow', which featured film, book, and television reviews, and articles profiling new video games, theatre, and music. Some editions have been themed; themes have included "Food", "Music", "Capitalism", "Medicine", "Art", and "Perth". The upcoming theme for December 2019 is "Digital Intimacies".

In 2013 TLB published its first anthology: The Best of The Lifted Brow: Volume One.[5] Edited by Ronnie Scott and celebrating the first five years of the magazine (2007-2011). It featured Jim Shepard, Karen Russell, Daniel Handler, Lisa Brown, Heidi Julavits, Adam Levin, Karen Coin, Rick Moody, Robert Shearman, n a bourke, Glen David Gold, Blake Butler, Michaela McGuire, Liam Pieper, Romy Ash, Luke Ryan, Tao Lin, Benjamin Law, Benjamin Kunkel, Christos Tsiolkas, Tom Cho, Alice Pung, and Elspeth Muir. The second volume of The Best of The Lifted Brow was published in November 2017.

In late 2014, The Lifted Brow begun running its now-annual Prize for Experimental Non-fiction, which went to Oscar Schwartz for his piece 'Humans Pretending to be Computers Pretending to be Humans'. The 2016 prize judges are Helen Macdonald, Kate Zambreno, Dodie Bellamy and Maria Tumarkin and declared W.J.P. Newnham's piece 'Trashman Loves Maree' the winner. In 2017 the judges are Eileen Myles, Wayne Koestenbaum, Leslie Jamison, Fiona Wright and Claudia La Rocco.

In 2015, The Lifted Brow won the inaugural 'Best Original Non-fiction' prize,[6] judged by Shazna Nessa and Lynn Barber, at the Stack Magazines awards,[7] beating out over 170 other titles.

Contributors who have appeared in the magazine include Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Wayne Koestenbaum, Helen Garner, Anne Boyer, Douglas Coupland, Roxane Gay, Heidi Julavits, Tom Bissell, Eileen Myles, Margo Lanagan, Tracy K. Smith, Diane Williams, Sam Lipsyte, Sheila Heti, and others.

As of September 2019 there have been 43 issues of The Lifted Brow published.

Brow Books

In 2015, The Lifted Brow announced that it was expanding into book publishing.[8] Brow Books was created in 2016 to publish the authors and books that established publishing houses were largely ignoring due to perceived lack of commercial viability.[9]

In 2018, the Brow put out a call soliciting manuscripts translated by Australians. "If you are translating a work from a language that is underrepresented, we want to hear from you."[10] The Brow also entered into a co-publishing agreement with Tilted Axis, a nonprofit dedicated to publishing contemporary Asian literature. The agreement gives Brow right of first refusal in Australia and New Zealand for Tilted Axis titles.[11]

Published works[12]

2016

2017

2018

  • Axiomatic[18] by Maria Tumarkin, a Stella award shortlisted novel.[19]
  • Apple and Knife, a collection of short stories by Indonesian writer Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen J Epstein of Victoria University of Wellington.[20]
  • Pink Mountain on Locust Mountain[21], Jamie Marina Lau's Stella award shortlisted debut novel.[19]
  • Han Yujoo’s The Impossible Fairytale, translated from Korean by Janet Hong.[22]
  • One Good Turn[23], the first book of Mary Leunig's illustrations to be published in 25 years.[24]
  • Small Beauty, by debut author Jiaqing Wilson-Yang.[25]
  • Balancing Acts: Women in Sport, edited by Justin Wolfers with Erin Riley.[26] Contributors to this non-fiction work include Brunette Lenkic, Imogen Smith, Jodi McAlister, Nicole Hayes, Danielle Warby, Kasey Symons, Emma Jenkins, Erin Stewart, Ellen Van Neerven, Kate Doak, Holly Isemonger, Gina Rushton, Charlotte Guest, Katerina Bryant, Nadia Bailey, Savannah Indigo, Stephanie King, Laura Buzo, Roslyn Helper, and Rebecca Slater.
  • Going Postal: More Than 'Yes' or 'No', edited by Quinn Eades and Son Vivienne.[27]

2019

  • Comic artist Mandy Ord's When One Person Dies The Whole World is Over.[28]
  • This Young Monster by Charlie Fox.[29]
  • Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, the first English language novel by a Thai woman to appear outside of Thailand.[30] The text was translated by Mui Poopoksakul.

Forthcoming works[31]

To be published in 2020

  • The Relationship is the Project edited by Jade Lillie, with Kate Larsen, Cara Kirkwood and Jax Jacki Brown.
  • Vietnamatta by Stephen Pham.
  • Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau.
  • Dizzy Limits: Experiments in Australian Nonfiction.
  • Big Beautiful Female Theory by Eloise Grills, an expansion the winning essay from the 2018 Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction.[32]
  • Capitalism Makes Me Sick! by Nicky Minus.

To be published in 2021

  • Anamnesis, or A Book No Longer Discussed Today by André Dao.

To be published in 2021/22

  • Fuji by Jamie Marina Lau.

See also

References
  1. "‘The Lifted Brow’ to partner with ‘McSweeney’s’", Books and Publishing, September 19, 2014
  2. https://www.theliftedbrow.com/liftedbrow/2020/4/10/a-message-from-the-board-of-tlb-society-inc
  3. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/tales-of-sexual-misconduct-push-the-lifted-brow-close-to-the-edge/news-story/45362c1769b6594bdc231e58de8788aa
  4. "Masthead". The Lifted Brow. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  5. "The Best of the Lifted Brow: Volume One | Penguin Books Australia". Penguin. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  6. "The Stack Awards 2015: The winners! - STACK magazines". STACK magazines. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  7. "The Stack Awards". STACK. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  8. "The Lifted Brow Expands into Book Publishing". The Lifted Brow. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  9. "Brow Books", MPavilion
  10. "Sunday Submissions: Brow Books", ArabLit, July 8, 2018
  11. Onwuemezi, Natasha. "Tilted Axis partners with Australian press Brow Books", The Bookseller, March 28, 2018
  12. "Shop". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  13. "THE ISLAND WILL SINK by Briohny Doyle". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  14. Vaarwerk, Alan. "First Book Club: An interview with The Lifted Brow’s Sam Cooney",, Kill Your Darlings Magazine, December 2, 2016
  15. "THE TOWN by Shaun Prescott". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  16. "LAW SCHOOL by Benjamin Law and Jenny Phang". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  17. "THE BEST OF THE LIFTED BROW: VOLUME TWO". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  18. Tumarkin, Maria. Axiomatic, New South Books
  19. "Stella Prize", Wikipedia, 14 October 2019, retrieved 18 October 2019
  20. "Brow Books Book Launch: Apple and Knife", New Zealand Featival
  21. "PINK MOUNTAIN ON LOCUST ISLAND by Jamie Marina Lau". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  22. "THE IMPOSSIBLE FAIRYTALE by Han Yujoo". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  23. "ONE GOOD TURN by Mary Leunig". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  24. Dezfouli, Liz. "Review: One Good Turn by Mary Leunig", Arts Hub Australia, October 1, 2018
  25. "SMALL BEAUTY by Jiaqing Wilson-Yang". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  26. "BALANCING ACTS: WOMEN IN SPORT". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  27. "GOING POSTAL: MORE THAN 'YES' OR 'NO'". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  28. "WHEN ONE PERSON DIES THE WHOLE WORLD IS OVER by Mandy Ord". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  29. "THIS YOUNG MONSTER by Charlie Fox". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  30. "BRIGHT by Duanwad Pimwana". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  31. "Forthcoming". BROW BOOKS. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  32. "Excerpt: 'big beautiful female theory', by Eloise Grills". The Lifted Brow. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
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