Memewar (pronounced "memoir"), was a free, self-funded magazine from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Categorized as a multidisciplinary magazine (but often labelled as a literary magazine due its literary edge), Memewar features work from many different genres (including poetry, prose, art, photography, essays, comics, etc.) and disciplines (science, literature, history, etc.)
Memewar's mission statement claims that "Memewar is interdisciplinary. Both a "meme war," a clash of ideas, and a "memoir," a recording of history, Memewar offers an inclusive space where diverse communities come together and interact. Each issue is intended to promote dialogue through a variety of genres and perspectives." The title for the magazine comes from Kalle Lasn's Culture Jam , which describes the "meme" war ("meme" being a term to describe any particular facet of culture, such as a cultural tradition, institution or idea) as a battle of subconscious writing of brand names to control the mass media. Essentially, a war of ideas.
Due to their concern for environmental sustainability, Memewar prints only on recycled paper and provides each issue online in PDF form.
The editorial collective of Memewar first collaborated on a similar magazine, The Liar, which was funded by Capilano University (in North Vancouver). The issue of The Liar focused on "social tact or lack thereof" and was released in the fall of 2005. During the inception of Memewar, the editors (who, at the time, included Missy Clarkson, AJ Ivings, Christina Gans, Elliott Lummin, Carmen Papalia, Thor Polukoshko, and Aubyn Rader) were influenced by other literary publications such as SubTerrain, Geist, Adbusters, and TISH.
Memewar is responsible for creating the Short Line Reading Series, a Vancouver literary event which began in January 2007.
In 2008, Memewar was named "Best Free Literary Magazine" in The Georgia Straight's "Best of Vancouver" issue.
In 2009, the editors of Memewar formed the Memewar Arts and Publishing Society (MAPS) - an organization devoted to upholding the magazine's focus on creating intellectual and creative dialogue between disciplines and artists. MAPS acts as an umbrella organization which supports projects such as Memewar Magazine and the Short Line Reading Series.
On February 9, 2010, The Memewar Arts & Publishing Society launched their new chapbook press, MemePress, with chapbooks penned by a number of Memewar founding editors. The launch included a poetry chapbook by Aubyn Rader titled "Benedict," along with a collaboration between Carmen Papalia and AJ Ivings titled "Touch Street." The release also included the first complete volume of Thor Polukoshko's comic book, Cereal Junkies, titled "The Trouble with Tigers," which was previously serialized throughout the first ten issues of Memewar.
Mark Leiren-Young is a Canadian playwright, author, journalist, screenwriter, filmmaker and performer. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
The Georgia Straight is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in a large 'tabloid' format in Vancouver, British Columbia, by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. Often known simply as The Straight, it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, public libraries and a large variety of other locations.
Room is a Canadian quarterly literary journal that features the work of emerging and established women and genderqueer writers and artists. Launched in Vancouver in 1975 by the West Coast Feminist Literary Magazine Society, or the Growing Room Collective, the journal has published an estimated 3,000 women, serving as an important launching pad for emerging writers. Room publishes short fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, art, feature interviews, and features that promote dialogue between readers, writers and the collective, including "Roommate" and "The Back Room". Collective members are regular participants in literary and arts festivals in Greater Vancouver and Toronto.
Spork Press is a small press in Tucson, Arizona edited and constructed by Richard Siken, Drew Burk, Andrew Shuta, Joel Smith, and Jake Levine. Beginning in 2001, it began publishing a quarterly literary magazine called Spork, which is often bound hardback.
Katherine Victoria Litwack, known professionally as Kat Dennings, is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Max Black in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls (2011–2017) and as Darcy Lewis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013), and the Disney+ miniseries WandaVision (2021).
Pierre Coupey is a Canadian painter, poet, and editor.
Joseph Hillström King is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.
Scott Clifford Cairns is an American poet, memoirist, librettist, and essayist.
The Short Line Reading Series is a free literary event that takes place at The Railway Club in Vancouver, British Columbia — a venue historical for showcasing local artistic talent.
Chavisa Woods is a New York City-based author, and winner of the Shirley Jackson Award.
Betsy Warland is one of Canada's leading feminist writers, and the author of a dozen books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and lyric prose. She is most widely known for her best-selling collection of essays, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing (2010).
Michael Brennan is an Australian poet. He is editor of the Australian sector of Poetry International Web and is the co-founder of publisher Vagabond Press.
Carmen Aguirre is a Vancouver-based actress and writer, born in Santiago, Chile. She plays a prominent role in Endgame.
Young Liars is a Canadian indie rock band based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Their musical style is upbeat and has been described as "synth-infused pop rock".
BIM (magazine) was a distinguished "little magazine" first published in Barbados in 1942, being one of two pioneering Caribbean literary journals to have been established in the 1940s, the other being A. J. Seymour's Kyk-Over-Al in British Guiana in 1945. According to the Barbados National Register, on the submission of 16 volumes of BIM magazine together with the associated Frank Collymore Collection of correspondence in 2008:
Renée Sarojini Saklikar is an Indian-born Canadian lawyer, poet and author. Raised in New Westminster in Greater Vancouver, she married Adrian Dix. Rob Taylor of Prism International wrote in 2013 that "If you've spent much time in Vancouver's literary community, you've probably heard of, or run into, Renée Saklikar."
Saraba is a nonprofit literary magazine published by the Saraba Literary Trust in Nigeria. First published in February 2009, it aims "to create unending voices by publishing the finest emerging writers, with focus on writers from Nigeria, and other parts of Africa". It has become one of the most successful literary magazines in and out of Africa.
Maureen Seaton is an American LGBTQ poet, activist, and professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of Miami. She is the author of fourteen solo books of poetry, thirteen co-authored books of poetry, and her memoir, Sex Talks to Girls. Throughout her writing career, Seaton has often collaborated with fellow poets Denise Duhamel, Neil de la Flor, Kristine Snodgrass, and Samuel Ace.
Gillian Jerome is a Canadian poet, essayist, editor and instructor. She won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2009 and the ReLit Award for Poetry in 2010. Jerome is a co-founder of Canadian Women In Literary Arts (CWILA), and also serves as the poetry editor for Geist. She is a lecturer in literature at the University of British Columbia and also runs writing workshops at the Post 750 in downtown Vancouver.
Cecily Nicholson is a Canadian poet, arts administrator, independent curator, and activist. Originally from Ontario, she is now based in British Columbia. As a writer and a poet, Nicholson has published collections of poetry, contributed to collected literary works, presented public lectures and readings, and collaborated with numerous community organizations. As an arts administrator, she has worked at the Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey, British Columbia, and the artist-run centre Gallery Gachet in Vancouver.