Beloved literary magazine The Believer is back in San Francisco. It launched in 2003 as a publication with essays, comics, poetry and art. It’s the brainchild of cofounder Vendela Vida - a novelist and wife of San Francisco writer and publisher Dave Eggers.
The idea was to create a literary space for writers who didn’t get write ups in the big publications, or features in the Sunday reviews. Writers that wrote longer essays than most magazines would tolerate. It had a loyal following and went on to be a 12 time finalist for the National Magazine Award. But in 2017, it became harder to sustain financially, so Vida and her partners sold it. Hana spoke with her to hear what happened next, but first she asked her go back to the time when she and her co founders first envisioned the magazine.
