OSSIAN is a literature and arts magazine ‘concerned with the contemporary sentiment.’ It brings together fiction, essays, journalism and graphic arts with the aim of bridging the gaps in a diverse cultural scene. It seeks to show that everything is part of the bigger picture – no matter how incoherent that picture appears to be.

It takes its name from the legendary bard 

Ossian, who was claimed by scholar James Macpherson in the eighteenth century to be the author of a cycle of epic Gaelic poems. 

Although now generally believed to be a fabrication of Macpherson’s own making

, Ossian’s poems gained huge popularity when they were first ‘unearthed.’ This, combined with the heated discussion around their authenticity, made Ossian a literary, political and cultural phenomenon at the very same time.

In the same way we want OSSIAN, the magazine, to be a catalyst for debate and exchange, bringing diverse cultural forces into contact with one another. We publish long-form works that touch on all subjects and genre, from current affairs to timeless fiction. We know no brow, putting alternative comics on a level footing with ‘serious’ literature – while showing ‘being serious’ does not always require a straight face.

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