From issue 19 editorial -

"This year marks our sixth anniversary. For six years, we have showcased promising new poets and writers, and elected to publish those traditionally ignored by the mainstream magazines. 

Throughout this time we have remained independent, relying exclusively on sales, and not resorting to advertising or grants, which by their very nature encroach on artistic freedom. This fundamental principle allows us to consistently produce what we feel is a high-quality publication.

It’s also been important to us to avoid the temptation to repeatedly publish friends, allies and anyone who submits work with a promise of buying a couple of issues in exchange for their name in print.    

Sticking our necks out to produce an independent arts magazine, without pretension, may have alienated some, but thankfully many more have embraced us."  

 

Open Wide Magazine was conceived in 2001 by two writers who were tired of the overtly literary tones of the standard literary magazines.  It seemed you needed a degree in language or literature or both to get work published.    

They set about producing a magazine that would embrace writers who had been ignored by the standard presses, writers who wrote from life experience, writers who had come to literature from a non-scholarly background. Open Wide Magazine is to literature what punk rock is to music.

Over the coming years the magazine went from strength to strength, not only publishing up-and-coming writers alongside established ones but also reviewing the latest music, books and films and interviewing people such as Robert Newman, Stewart Lee and George Galloway. The magazine stretches beyond the British Isles and is now one of the best selling arts magazines in the world.

Now in its sixth year, the magazine has never been so vital: you won’t find any other entirely independent arts magazine with the same ethos as Open Wide. Open Wide continues to be the magazine to be seen reading and to have your work seen in.

- Isobel Baker, Mexico, 2007.