A journal of essays, reviews, fiction, poetry, and more, The Agonist was created to provide a medium for writing that is not well-served in today’s intellectual climate. There are many publications that are not interested in issues outside and (as it were) above the current news cycle. Writers are commonly made to stick to a certain word limit, lest the mind, which has never been so harried or flooded with trifles, be overly taxed. Certain subjects are not to be covered; others may be covered only within certain parameters. It is all quite limited and boring and predictable. So we created this journal, with its contrarian stance.
That contrarianism includes our approach to literature, of course. For us, works of literature are essentially verbal constructions. Race, gender, sexual orientation—these things, in our view, are not aesthetic criteria, and therefore do not factor into what we publish, review, or publish criticism on. Plainly it is not so at many other journals, where mankind’s endless project of improvement entails the belief that fiction, poetry, and so forth, are meritorious because written by a woman, a person of color, a homosexual, or whoever. Going against that PC grain, we seek to preserve intellectual and aesthetic standards in a time when they are increasingly threatened. Above all, we seek to publish good writing—where good means, at the least, interesting and well-wrought.
The Agonist is a labor of love: funded out of pocket and by reader donations. Many publications rely on wealthy donors who expect them to push a certain agenda. In contrast, we intend to maintain absolute editorial independence. But to do so we need considerable independent financial support. Please, therefore, consider making a donation to the journal; whatever you can offer will help to sustain it.
You can support us by Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/TheAgonist.
PayPal donations can be sent to c.e.grotius@gmail.com.
Donations by check can be sent to the publisher/editor:
Christopher DeGroot
P.O. Box 30512
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
Thank you for your support!