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Bomb (magazine)

American arts magazine edited by artists and writers

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Source updated September 17, 2026

Bomb (stylized in all caps as BOMB) is an interdisciplinary American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplines, visual art, literature, film, music, theater, architecture, and dance. Bomb also publishes reviews of literature, film, and music, as well as new poetry and fiction.

Many of the contributing editors to the magazine are established artists, musicians, and writers, such as Kara Walker, David Byrne, Roxane Gay, and Colm Tóibín. However, over 50 percent of their writers are under 30.

01History

Bomb was launched in 1981 by a group of New York City-based artists, including Betsy Sussler, Sarah Charlesworth, Glenn O'Brien, Michael McClard, and Liza Béar, who sought to record and promote public conversations between artists without mediation by critics or journalists.

The name Bomb is a reference to both Wyndham Lewis' Blast and the fact that the magazine's original editors expected the publication to "bomb" after one or two issues. Shortly after its founding, Bomb formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, New Art Publications, Inc., which publishes the journal.

In 2005, the Bomb offices moved from the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, New York, to Fort Greene, Brooklyn. By December 2019, Bomb had published one hundred fifty issues.

02Notable contributors

03Archive at Columbia University

In 2004, Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired Bomb's archives, including twenty-four years' worth of audio recordings, raw and edited interview transcripts, manuscripts, galleys, and assorted ephemera.

04Oral History Project

Since 2014, Bomb's Oral History Project has staged one-on-one interviews with New York City-based visual artists of the African descent, conducted by curators, scholars, and cultural producers.

The Oral History Project is dedicated to collecting, developing, and preserving the stories of distinguished visual artists of the African Diaspora. The Oral History Project has organized interviews including: Wangechi Mutu by Deborah Willis, Kara Walker & Larry Walker, Edward Clark by Jack Whitten, Adger Cowans by Carrie Mae Weems, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe by Kalia Brooks, Melvin Edwards by Michael Brenson, Terry Adkins by Calvin Reid, Stanley Whitney by Alteronce Gumby, Gerald Jackson by Stanley Whitney, Eldzier Cortor by Terry Carbone, Peter Bradley by Steve Cannon, Quincy Troupe & Cannon Hersey, James Little by LeRonn P. Brooks, William T. Williams by Mona Hadler, Maren Hassinger by Lowery Stokes Sims, Linda Goode Bryant by Rujeko Hockley, Janet Olivia Henry and Sana Musasama by Stephanie E. Goodalle.

Watch videos about Bomb (magazine)Explainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bomb (magazine)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Jeffrey Eugenides spread.jpg by Savannnahbomb, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sana Musasama and Janet Olivia Henry for OHP.png by Savannnahbomb, CC BY-SA 4.0

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