For the better part of the 1990s Caffeine Magazine was the largest poetry magazine in the country. Publishing luminaries and lesser knows alike, Caffeine featured stunning design and a alternative fanzine appeal that helped draw people into reading literature. After the Los Angeles Riots, it served as a unique creative outlet for a diverse group of writers. While the magazine suspended publication in 1998, in 2000 Incommunicado Press released “Scream When You Burn,” a Caffeine anthology. Periodically the magazine threatens to come back. So far it hasn’t.

Contributors included: Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Dave Alvin, Pam Ward, Rick Lupert, Al Austin, Arty Nelson, Nancy Agabian, Michelle Serros, David Aldridge, Eloise Klein Healy, Ellyn Maybe, Michael D. Meloan, Scott Wannberg, Jay Alamares, Amale Frank, Geoff Farr, Doug Knott, Lyn Lifshin,

RJ Comer, Scott Holstad, Tom Gianakopoulos, Robert Rhine, Charles Webb, among others.