Litro

About Litro

Litro is an international literary and cultural platform publishing fiction, essays, interviews, criticism and new voices across the UK, US and global literary communities. Founded in London in 2005, it publishes rigorously edited fiction, creative nonfiction and translation that moves between cities, languages and cultural contexts. Published four times a year in print, spanning print, digital, audio and video content and live events, it is led by Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Eric Akoto, with an active US presence based in New York. Its website is litromagazine.com.

"Stories transport you" is the magazine's motto — and its editorial approach is shaped by long-form curation, strong narrative craft and a commitment to global voices, supported by a publishing model that combines print heritage with digital-first circulation.

Founded in London in 2005

Litro was founded in London in 2005 — "founded in 2005," as its own site states — as an international magazine for new writing. From its London beginnings it developed into a transatlantic platform, with an active US presence based in New York amplifying the creativity, influence and impact that have characterised Litro since its founding.

The magazine's media pack describes it as "a platform for escapism that champions writers & artists in the USA and beyond — in print and online. At its heart is the nurturing of a community that produces works that are enjoyed and appreciated by the general public while connecting cultures and building creative communities."

Cross-Border Literature

Asked to describe what it publishes in 25 characters or less, Litro answers: "Cross-border literature." The magazine publishes rigorously edited fiction, creative nonfiction and translation that moves between cities, languages and cultural contexts, "rather than operating within a single national literary frame."

Its admired models include Granta, The Paris Review, n+1, McSweeney's, Wasafiri and Guernica — alongside independent presses and journals investing in translation and cross-cultural work such as Words Without Borders and Asymptote.

Published Four Times a Year

Published four times a year, each edition of Litro features various literary genres including short stories, longform essays, fiction, interviews, photography, art and poetry. Themed issues — East London, South London, Latin America, Translating India — curate writing around places, cultures and ideas.

The magazine connects emerging and established writers with readers, publishers, cultural institutions and creative partners through its magazine, digital editions, masterclasses, podcasts and live projects.

Litro Live! and the World Series

Litro's work spans literature, arts and live events: the Litro Live! World Series has staged festivals and tours including "Translating India" — with sessions at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2018, the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters in Kerala, and a London festival at the British Library and the London Library — and "Breaking Borders," featuring readings and conversations with writers from Latin America and beyond.

These live programmes extend the magazine's cross-border mission from the page to the stage: writers, translators and readers meeting across cultures.

A Platform of Discovery

Litro describes itself as "a platform of discovery": readers come to be the first to read and discover new, exciting voices, and to explore a diverse, international collection of writing across genres and styles. Its young audience is offered varied opinions, "allowing the readers to create their own educated opinions from the information we provide them."

Writers featured in its pages have gone on to win important literary prizes — a testament to the magazine's eye for new talent.

Litro Today

From its 2005 London founding to today's UK–US platform, Litro has championed cross-border literature for two decades — publishing the fiction, essays, interviews and translations that move between worlds.

As an international magazine founded in London with an active US presence, it remains what it set out to be: the platform where stories transport you, at litromagazine.com.

Litro Live! at the Camden Crawl

Litro has always been as much a live proposition as a printed one. Litro Live! brought Londoners fresh and exciting talent from the world of the spoken word — readings from the hottest new writers interspersed with live music and DJ sets — and its appearance at the 2010 Camden Crawl was characteristic: a slew of leftfield literary and musical talent, established and new, in celebration of the free spirit of music and words.

The Camden Crawl line-up showed the magazine's range: words from Philip Wilding, Murray Lachlan Young and Garth Cartwright, music from Errol Linton, Orlando Seale, Cellophane Flowers and Ana Silvera, with live DJ sets from the award-winning Ninja Tunes DJ 10sui, aka Tracie Storey. It was literature as a night out — the magazine's free-spirited answer to the conventional reading.

The live programme extended well beyond Camden. Litro Live! took part at the Hay-on-Wye festival and took shows around the UK, including Edinburgh's National Gallery — carrying the magazine's mix of the literary and the musical to audiences across the country.

Welsh, Bukowski, Zephaniah

Founded in 2005, Litro describes itself as an international literary and cultural platform, publishing fiction, essays, interviews, criticism and new voices across the UK, US and global literary communities. An earlier generation of publicity put it more bluntly: London's leading short stories magazine, publishing short fiction and poetry — with authors published including Irvine Welsh, Ross Sutherland, Charles Bukowski and Benjamin Zephaniah.

That roll call captures the magazine's catholic taste: the Scottish novelist of Trainspotting, the American laureate of the Los Angeles lowlife, the British-Jamaican dub poet, and the multimedia poet-performer — all at home in the same pages. Litro connects emerging and established writers with readers, publishers, cultural institutions and creative partners through its magazine, digital editions, masterclasses, podcasts and live projects.

It is a thoroughly twenty-first-century literary operation: the print magazine at its heart, but surrounded by a penumbra of digital, audio and live activity that carries its writers to audiences the printed page alone could never reach.

Havana Calling: The Cuba Edition

The Litro World Series has taken the magazine's internationalism around the globe — including, memorably, to Cuba. 'Havana Calling!' saw the magazine take over Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening devoted to Cuban writing, with an additional launch event at the Central Library in Kensington: conversations with Cuban writers Karla Suarez and Orlando Luis Pardo, a writing-in-the-community workshop with author Leila Segal and translator Daniel Hahn, and salsa from musician Nana Clara and her band.

The Cuba edition was part of a wider programme that has included a Latin America edition — guest-edited by Chloe Aridjis, with readings and conversations at the London Library and the British Library — and Translating India, launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018 with writers including Tishani Doshi, Vivek Shanbhag and Shashi Tharoor in conversation with Litro's editor Eric Akoto.

From Havana to Jaipur via Piccadilly, the World Series embodies what Litro has always been about: literature that crosses borders, in every sense — of nation, of language, and of the boundary between the page and the stage.

Breaking Borders: The Latin America Edition

The Litro World Series: Breaking Borders tour brought Latin American writing to London in a programme that showed the magazine's event-making at full stretch. On 27 October the series visited the London Library for an invitation-only event; on 31 October it closed at the British Library with an evening of words, readings and conversations featuring the Oaxacan poet Natalia Toledo, authors Chloe Aridjis, Lina Meruane and Carlos Fonseca, and translator Daniel Hahn — with a live DJ set from Fabricio D. Vyzor and drinks at the Knowledge Centre bar.

The Latin America edition itself was guest-edited by Chloe Aridjis, and the tour was moderated by Oliver Balch — a model Litro operation, pairing a themed edition of the magazine with live events in two of London's great literary institutions. It was literature as cultural diplomacy: Mexican poetry, Chilean and Argentine fiction, and the translators who make them readable in English, all on one stage.

From Jaipur to Havana to the British Library, the World Series has been Litro's signature: the international literary and cultural platform, founded in 2005, doing what it does best — connecting writers, readers, publishers and cultural institutions across borders, in print, online and in person.