In the day when poets are opting out of chap books for blogs, and prize-winning authors earn their livings more through teaching the creative process than engaging in it, here comes a new literary magazine.

Canteen, the brainchild of a poet (editor-in-chief Sean Finney), a professional poker player (publisher Stephen Pierson), an editor (Mia Lipman) and a corporate lawyer turned designer (Sai Sriskandarajah), promises to be different than others of its genre. When the inaugural issue landed at my elbow this morning, I ran through a checklist of promises made in the press release. Devoted to aesthetic allure, Canteen will be alluring (check). It will focus on the creative process-how and why writers write (check). It aims to engage readers with both literature and the visual arts (check).

On allure, Canteen scores high. First of all, it smells like a book, not a magazine. It's printed on heavy-weight, matte-coated text paper, the kind usually found in design-heavy paper promotions. The square format allows for section-breaking gutter-jumping spreads featuring lusciously printed photographs. And the page layout and typography favor reading and art appreciation.

The literary content ranges wide and high. Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli and a judge for the 2007 National Book Awards, contributes a piece about his unpublished work, starting with a first novel written at age 10. Prize-winning authors Julia Orringer (How To Breathe Underwater) and Ryan Harty (Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona), wrote a piece about making a poem using the very middlebrow Magnetic Poetry Kit. Excerpts from Ward Schumacher's post-Apocalyptic painted piece entitled Elixir Refused is presented as literature, and so beautifully printed that its three-dimensional qualities are evident. Canteen's namesake, Dennis Leary's San Francisco restaurant, where the literary banquets that begot the magazine, is slyly referenced by omission in a tour de force by Leary himself. He skewers food trends and uber-foodies in a death-wish-defying piece that includes the future trend of dining on live creatures.

There's more poetry and fiction, often by writers writing outside of their usual genre. Jay Leibold, a writer of interactive books for children, contributes a hair-raising story about the end of time for four people on a desert road trip. Stacey Duff, a Beijing-based writer, and the arts editor for TimeOut Beijing, contributes two love poems. Po Bronson, author of five books including the bestseller, What Should I Do With My Life, wrote an essay he says he "wouldn't have-and couldn't have-written for anyone else."

Canteen's designer, Sai Sriskandarajah, also a photographer, contributed several images including the cover. Among the artists he employed are Fernanda Cohen, whose graceful lines and colors adorn Dennis Leary's piece; Susan Sermoneta, whose photograph of a fog-bound apartment building perfectly introduces Exiles, by Josh Emmons; and Jeff Gray, a new-media sleuth who specializes in global "social, physical, and meta networks," contributed a color image from his Night Photographs series.

Lovers of literature and art are invited to the New York launch party on Friday, May 18, from 8:00 pm-2:00 am at CVB Space. Please RSVP on Canteen's website.