Earlier this month Nina Johnson-Milewski, publisher of the Miami Rail, granted KnightArts a sneak peek of the first issue of the Miami Rail. Today Phong Bui, publisher of The Brooklyn Rail, expands on the origins of and concept behind the Miami Rail. Click here to read the complete article and read on for an excerpt…

“…A year later, Nina and her colleagues, with the Knight Foundation’s support, conceived the Miami Rail. Like the Brooklyn Rail, the journal values the creative struggle and sees no need for editorial uniformity. The Miami Rail seeks to showcase voices to constitute a critical dialogue which oscillates between the profound lamentation of history with its natural tendency to repeat itself (as Edward Young once stated, “We were all born originals. Why is it that so many die copies?”), and the renewed optimism of Apollinaire’s avant-gardesque attitude, where “even if nothing is new under the sun the new spirit does not refrain from discovering new profundities in all this that is not new under the sun.” As my late friend Hank (Henry Luce III) once wrote in a blurb for the Rail soon after I met him in May 2002: “Years ago the most famous newspaper in Brooklyn was theBrooklyn Eagle. The rail is also a bird, and so it is fitting that the Eagle’s successor is the Brooklyn Rail. It is a splendid publication that covers the arts, politics, and culture. I heartily recommend it.” Now it’s my turn to commend the addition of the Miami Rail.”