our vision.
What brought us here?
shared stories.
Olney Magazine was created in the spirit of the community open reading, the forever-old act of giving yourself to those around you. We aim to showcase poetry and prose with sincere intentions, works that forgo aesthetic goals and academic conventions to offer an honest perspective to others. We seek writing that lives in the labor, takes long breaths, words that still have the dirt in them.
Co-editors & founders Brandon Noel & Tony Wade were inspired directly by the life & work of their shared mentor and fellow Ohio poet Maj Ragain. The formation of this magazine was centered on the kind of work he taught them to create, love, & seek out. The name Olney comes from Ragain’s hometown of Olney, Illinois. It is a way of honoring him, as well as, the place he loved & wrote of so fondly.