I’ve become a big reader of literary journals over the past year or so. On top of all the magazines, it can be difficult to find the time to keep with all of them, but the quality has been so good lately. Here are a few that I’ve been reading.

The new Virginia Review Quarterly devoted almost their entire Spring 2006 issue to Darwin and Evolution. I’ve just read David Quammen’s essay “Mr. Darwin’s Abominable Volume”—completely fascinating. He writes about the actual writing of Origin of the Species. How Alfred Russell Wallace was on the same track as Darwin and that finally spurred Darwin on to write his book. Their Summer issue, which I haven’t received yet, contains a short story by Alice Munro from her forthcoming collection as well as a slew of authors writing about appreciating Munro.

The newest Granta called On the Road Again explores travel writing and whether it can be more than just literary entertainment. It contains imaginative essays by John Burnside, Tim Parks, Tia Wallman to name a few.