• Paid Subscription

    A contribution of any amount keeps us going.

    Subscriptions renew automatically.

    Cancel anytime.

     

    *Privacy Policy: Journal of the Plague Years and Blue Books will not sell your information. Hell, we hardly know what to do with it ourselves.

    broken image

    Moll Flanders Slept Here

    Supporter

    $100 / year

    “Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.”

     

    I support The Journal instead.

    broken image

    Friend of Daniel Defoe

    Subscriber

    $65 / year

    “I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.”

     

    Regular subscription level. New New Journalism & a soupçon of art.

    broken image

    Robinson Crusoe

    Starving Artist

    $25 / year

    Help! I’m stranded on a desert island! (With Pierce Brosnan?)

     

    Friday, help!

    (Less than a latte...)

    broken image

    Rags to Riches like Defoe's Roxana? Become a Founding Member

    $250 / year

    We'll make it worth your while. Got a manuscript that needs a new set of eyes? Or just want to feel better about the sorry state of journalism? We're there for ya'.

  • broken image

    Free Subscription? 

    In the spirit of Abbie Hoffman, You Can Steal This Magazine

    (It's OK, we don't need to eat. Really.)

  • How about a one-time donation?(We get it. Who knows what's happening five minutes from now.)

    Donate via PayPal. Recurring donations are great. An alternative to subscribing but pretty much the same, except you have more choice on the amount.

  • Note: Paid Subscription

    A contribution of any amount keeps us going and helps us extend our reach

    Subscriptions renew automatically but you can cancel anytime.

    broken image

    Sign up for a $100 Moll Flanders Slept Here subscription and we'll send you a signed copy of Steve Erickson's brilliant American Stutter, first published by Journal of the Plague Years. Just email us at plaguejournal@gmail.com including your receipt and we'll pop one in the mail.

  • Why We're Worth It

     

    Walter Shapiro, columnist, The New Republic, Roll Call.

    Unlikely events can trigger great publications. The New York Review of Books was born in the midst of the 1962 New York newspaper strike that devastated book reviews. The horrors and dislocations of Covid-19 gave rise to a fledgling online publication with modest resources and great literary ambitions. The result has been the admirable Journal of the Plague Years that I read avidly for its sharp insights and graceful writing about the strangest days of our lives.

    David Talbot, author, By the Light of Burning Dreams. Salon magazine founder and editor.

    Sometimes, American ingenuity responds creatively to crises. And, thus, from the ashes we have the phoenix of Susan Zakin's Journal of the Plague Year, which contains some of the most perceptive, darkly funny and artful writing about the terrible pandemic that has befallen our world. The journal is one of the few bright lights I look forward to reading in our gloomy new normal.

    J.C. Hallman, author, The Devil is a Gentleman, The Hospital for Bad Poets. 

    Just when the world needed a cure, Journal of the Plague Year arrived with an antidote for intellectual torpor and moral squalor. Trenchant and funny, urgent yet literary, this upstart of a magazine, already compiling an impressive audience, fills an absent niche in the literary ecosystem and provides a much-needed platform for the sort of work that challenges the mind and nourishes the soul.

    Ted Mooney, Easy Travel to Other Planets, The Same River Twice. Contributor to Esquire, Granta.

    I’ve been reading Susan Zakin’s Journal of the Plague Year with pleasure and relief. Pleasure because of the deft editorial mix that, matching story to form, brings together switchblade journalism, lyric musings, hot personal takes, and street anthropology, with a healthy dose of deep black humor, to address this strange time we’re living through. But with the pleasure also comes relief. Without realizing it, I’d been waiting for someone of a sensibility quick enough and responsive enough to see that our newly at-risk culture needs new voices to speak about it in fresh ways. Susan Zakin is that person. I would read anything she puts before me. I urge others to do the same.

    Cookie Use
    We use cookies to ensure a smooth browsing experience. By continuing we assume you accept the use of cookies.
    Learn More