ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action is an award-winning interdisciplinary magazine conceived as an agent of community building. ROOM offers a transdisciplinary approach to thinking about the complex problems in our world and invites a greater familiarity with psychoanalysis as a lens for social discourse. The magazine, which is free online and available for purchase in print, is published three times a year. An international Roundtable follows each issue, allowing readers and authors to deepen the conversation together. ROOM also holds poetry salons, an annual gala, and a bi-monthly podcast featuring ROOM contributors. The PEN World Voices Festival showcased ROOM as an “indie lit mag” that “honors the art of the possible and the power of storytelling to push boundaries, challenge inherent narratives, and give voice to hope.”
ROOM, which has now been read in over 160 countries, was created by a group of psychoanalysts from IPTAR (The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research) in the wake of the 2016 US election. The first issue resonated with readers far beyond our local community, demonstrating this new platform’s potential. IPTAR supported ROOM in producing a second issue and became its fiscal sponsor. Over the coming years, ROOM received essential grants from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation of ApsaA, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses/New York Foundation for the Arts, and the publisher IP Books. Since establishing an independent 501(c)(3) in 2022, a growing group of institutions have partnered with ROOM to help facilitate the platform’s social mission. ROOM is a participatory community project entirely dependent upon the donations, submissions, and enthusiasm of its worldwide readership.
