A Literary Labor of Love - Umberto Tosi
CQR founder Syed Afzal Haider The other day I was pleased to lunch once again with Syed Afzal Haider , genial founder of Chicago Quarterly Review as well as CQR's fiction editor, friend and retired Chicago Tribune book editor John Blades . Haider has published this literary gem since 1994, making it the Windy City's oldest continuously in-print literary journal, no small feat amid the sea of changes in publishing since then. Decidedly nonprofit - with emphasis on the "non," CQR has always been entirely self-sustaining and independent. It is a labour of love, cover-to-cover, a success in the most unconventional terms. It is simultaneously an anachronism and an example of cashless future Utopianism. It's both forward looking and set in its ways. It maintains a handsome Internet presence in the form of its Website and Facebook page, but crankily insists on remaining available only in print, with no ebook editions. I'm proud to have been ...