Tilden magazine third issue features prize-listed serialized-fiction writers
Tilden’s third issue features Laird Hunt, Sophie Mackintosh and Matt Thorne as it builds a $3 digital subscription model.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
2 min read
Tilden magazine’s third issue is out, adding work from Laird Hunt, Sophie Mackintosh and Matt Thorne to its monthly slate of long-form serialized fiction. The release gives the independent publication an early marker as it tries to bring installment-based literary storytelling to digital subscribers.
The magazine is built around fiction that develops across successive issues, a format associated with older periodicals and pulp magazines as well as literary publications. For readers, the appeal is continuity: a longer work arrives in parts, giving each issue a role in an ongoing story rather than a stand-alone package.
Tilden identifies Hunt as the author of Zorrie, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award. It also cites Mackintosh as the author of The Water Cure, winner of a Betty Trask Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize, and Thorne as the author of Cherry, also longlisted for the Booker Prize.
Tilden also lists Briana Loewinsohn and Thien Pham among its wider contributors. Loewinsohn is the author and illustrator of Raised by Ghosts, named winner of the 2025 Harvey Award for Best Young Adult Book, while Pham is the author and illustrator of the Eisner Award-winning Family Style.
What is Tilden’s serialized fiction magazine?
Serialized fiction publishes longer narratives in installments rather than all at once. Tilden’s version uses a monthly digital magazine format, allowing stories to unfold across multiple issues for readers who subscribe online.
The magazine casts its model as a contemporary version of the tradition associated with publications such as The Strand, The Smart Set and Black Mask. That positioning puts Tilden in a small but recognizable corner of publishing: long-form fiction packaged for recurring readership, with the magazine issue as the unit of delivery.
The $3-per-month starting price places the digital serialized-fiction magazine in the lower-cost end of subscription publishing. The publication says it is also emphasizing contributor pay, presenting compensation as part of its pitch to established and emerging writers who want to work across multiple installments.
Cover design and illustration for the issue is by Eugenia Yoh. With its third release, Tilden is now testing whether a roster of prize-recognized fiction writers and comics creators can help sustain a recurring audience for longer stories delivered in monthly digital form.