Christopher Bollen is a 29-year-old writer who graduated from Columbia University and considers Joan Didion his literary hero. He is also partial to the Robert Altman movie “Nashville” and the song “The Lights of Cincinnati” (he grew up in that city), and one of his dreams is “to have a second home in Laurel Canyon, covered in bougainvillea and night jasmine.”
Until recently, few people other than Mr. Bollen's friends and family knew these things. Or, for that matter, that Mr. Bollen vacationed in Miami last December and hung out at Deuce Bar. That changed in March, when Mr. Bollen graced the cover of Me magazine, a newish quarterly with a circulation of about 5,000 whose editorial vision could be best described as a really, really focused version of People.
Each issue has a “guest editor,” in this case Mr. Bollen. The editorial content consists of photos of 15 or so of the editor's friends, along with their answers to a Proustian questionnaire (“What is your most disappointing moment?” “What frightens you?”), more photos of the guest editor and Top 10-style lists of favorite books, music and the like.
Mr. Bollen, wearing a white T-shirt and a pensive expression, is pictured on the cover of issue No. 3, next to a tagline that says: “Meet Christopher Bollen & his friends.” Readers are treated to a probing nine-page interview with Mr. Bollen (“You said you were lonely and sought refuge in books? Why were you lonely?”), snapshots from his childhood and testimonials from his pals, among them the musician Rufus Wainwright and the writer Edmund White. Mr. White was introduced to Mr. Bollen through a mutual friend, we learn, and pays tribute to “how charming he is and how generous with signs of his affection.”
The magazine might seem the print embodiment of Andy Warhol's prediction about the ubiquity of fame, a satirical response to a self-absorbed society or an extension of the reality-television craze, but Claudia Wu, 28, who created Me and finances it, says the germ of the idea was less complicated.
“I moved out of the city and up to White Plains,” she said the other day over tea at the Algonquin Hotel. “I felt I was missing out. The magazine was a way of reconnecting.”
A soft-spoken woman with black bangs who works as a freelance graphic designer, Ms Wu acts as gatekeeper to ego immortality, bestowing upon her friends the otherwise impossible chance to grace a magazine cover. The first issue featured Joshua Abelow, a young painter Ms. Wu met at the Rhode Island School of Design (Mr. Abelow's favorite weekend trips include “Isca and Sebastian's country house upstate” and “Jason Frank's place in Quogue”).
Although Me is available in independent bookstores across the country (St. Mark's Bookshop carries it in the city), in many way it is distinctly New York. The first three issues of the magazine, which had its debut last fall, all focused on New Yorkers, and with few exceptions, the people adorning its pages - young, good-looking types with tousled hair and artistic careers - look as if they were plucked from an exclusive downtown party.
But if the magazine is self-celebratory, Ms. Wu says it is for all the right reasons. “These are people who I believe in and I want to help their careers,” she said. “They all work hard at what they do. I think it's completely relatable.”
Mr. Bollen, who is the editor of the fashion magazine V, where Ms. Wu briefly worked, originally demurred when asked to be the focus of an issue of Me. “I was worried that it could seem self-indulgent,” he said. But he finally agreed to be part of the project, and appears to have enjoyed the experience.
“At some point,” he said, “You realize, O.K., it is self-indulgent. There's no real chance in hell I'll be on the cover of a magazine. With Me, your secret fantasy of being mass-consumed is granted.”