Diogenes was the annual magazine of the Literary Society of the University ofTasmania. It ran from 1955 to 1965. There were ten issues in all with no issues being published in 1960. A study of its contributors which included both students and stall'of the University makes interesting reading. They included Vivian Smith. Christopher Koch, E. Morris Miller, John Clark, Nicholas Evcrs, Michael Hodgman, Peter Loftus, Sydney Sparkes Orr, Michael Boddy, Tim Thornc, Ted Sturges, Wayne Hooper and James McAuley, while Patti Warn was on the editorial committee for the 1962 issue. The editorial for the 1961 issue, which was edited and produced by Paul Fenton and Peter Loftus, asked:
Can Tasmania ever be anything but an intellectual backwater? Will Tasmanians ever progress from their present stage—a collection of passive natives ogling at coloured beads—the ships in the dock, the snow on the mountain, the A.N.Z. Bank, Fitzgerald's balloon, the castration of Georgian charm, pyjama-pants television towers, and the University's soulless shiver of squares?
There have been a number of little magazines since the 1960s which with Diogenes have tried to contribute to intellectual life in Tasmania. They include Broadsheet, a critical review, Peter Finke, Carandaith. the Tolkien Bulletin and the newsletter of the Australian Tolkien Society, New Morning. Island, Touchstone, Renaissance, and Australian Literary Studies, the academic magazine formerly of the University of Tasmania but since 1976 produced from the University of Queensland.