About Funicular Magazine

How’d we get started?

Funicular Magazine was founded by Jeremy Bibaud and Jason Lee Norman. The idea simultaneously, independently, and cosmically, came to the minds of its editors over a pint in 2018. We saw a literary fiction-sized hole in Edmonton, Alberta. Sure, at the time our arch-nemesis Glass Buffalo had cornered the market on this genre by winning award after award for their perfect and beautiful magazine, but in the famous words of Shania Twain—that don’t impress me much. Besides, one of our editors is a MacEwan University alum (Go Griffins or whatever!) so we can only go so far in our praise of a magazine published by Edmonton’s other university. We published our first issue in 2019 and we’ve been doing it three times a year since.

where’d We get that name?

Funicular was a placeholder until we thought of something better. In the end, we didn’t. Not because we’re lazy, but because the word is so damn fun to say. It felt appropriate too, as both editors have fond memories or ancestral ties to Lisbon, Portugal, where funiculars are as common as F-150s in Alberta. Coincidentally, Edmonton eventually built its very own funicular which made the name even more fitting.

Why are you always talking about knocking people out?

It’s just a tagline! Julio Cortázar said “the novel wins by points, the short story by knockout.” Our goal is to find fiction and poetry that lives up to this. If you don’t feel like you just had your bell rung after a short story or got punched in the gut after a poem, what’s the point?