Tin House magazine turns ten this year, and Literary Arts, a cultural organization located in the magazine’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, is gathering over a dozen notable writers to celebrate the occasion. On July 16, Portland-raised poets Matthew and Michael Dickman, along with fiction writers Dorothy Allison, Aimee Bender, Jim Shepard, and Colson Whitehead, among others, will join Tin House editor Rob Spillman, executive editor Lee Montgomery, founding publisher Win McCormack, and cofounder Elissa Schappell for a fete to benefit another Portland institution, Writers in the Schools.
Named for the corrugated zinc–sided building that the magazine inhabits in northwest Portland, Tin House has published forty issues since its inception in May 1999, featuring numerous award-winning writers including Denis Johnson, Matthea Harvey, Deborah Eisenberg, Richard Ford, and James Tate. The magazine has also regularly devoted pages to new talent, having published early works of emerging writers such as Matthew Dickman and Vestal McIntyre. (In 2005 the journal expanded into book publishing, launching the imprint Tin House Books, which has released titles by poet Alex Lemon, novelist Jeff Parker, artist Zak Smith, and many others.)
"Tin House is offering a roof—despite the toxins of commerce—shelter meant to keep our language alive," said novelist Allan Gurganus, as quoted in the press release announcing the event. "While New York publishers star-search for this year's single lollipop best-seller, Tin House recalls what literature can give one honest reader."
