Literary Magazine Masters the Art of Fact-Checking Fiction

By Jason Boog 

webcover_s10.jpgThe Canadian literary magazine Taddle Creek just announced that they will provide a free two-year subscription to eagle-eyed readers when they spot a mistake in the text.

Along with the project, the magazine will also maintain an ongoing corrections page, cataloging every single mistake made in the magazine. The magazine also published “The Taddle Creek Guidebook to Fact-Checking Fiction,” exposing the journal’s “godlike dedication to the sanctity of the printed word” in an 11-page booklet.

Here’s more from the magazine: “Maintaining the gold standard of literary-magazine fact-checking means fessing up to even the smallest of mistakes. And so, beginning immediately, the magazine will make note of and correct any erroneous information it discovers in its pages, regardless of its perceived importance. Errors will be listed in the magazine and on the magazine’s Web site. On-line corrections will be appended to pieces originally containing the error, and also can be found at [this page]… And just to prove Taddle Creek is serious about owning up to its mistakes, any reader pointing out an error in an issue of the magazine will receive a free two-year subscription.” (Via Columbia Journalism Review)