In the mid-1980s writer John Lehman went on a road trip with a friend to San Francisco. While there, the pair sought out City Lights Books, the independent bookstore co-founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which Lehman described as the ultimate "beatnik shrine."

At the time, Lehman wasn't able to articulate exactly what it was that he wanted to do to make his own literary mark, but visiting the famous bookstore was a high point in his cross-country odyssey.

Fast forward nearly a decade later, when Lehman returned to San Francisco on a business trip. By then he was the founder and editor of a cheeky start-up literary journal called Rosebud. The magazine defied every expectation: it possessed an off-beat populist feel; it featured catchy illustrated covers and illustrations in the stories instead of a sea of gray text; instead of enjoying university support, it was published out of the living room of the Cambridge, Wis. poet with the help of a couple friends, Rod Clark and Todd Pomplun.

Or, as writer Mort Castle writes in a recent 15th anniversary greeting for the magazine: "I first heard about Rosebud way back when, and with that name, I thought, "Uh-oh, another poet-taster journal." Surprise! Stories, poems, and articles that were not of the wet cocktail napkin school of sensitivity -- nor that reeked of the MFA workshop. Instead--stuff written by and for people--so often wonderful stuff!"

Lehman re-visited City Lights Books on that trip, and while there, he discovered Rosebud on the shelf. "It was a moment of ecstasy," he recalled. "I bought all the copies even though I had a basement full of them at home."

This December marks the start of the journal's 15th anniversary year as a nationally-distributed literary journal. It hasn't been easy maintaining the literary journal on a shoestring budget and with the help of only a few dedicated hard-core supporters; or easy to bring it from obscurity to national and even international recognition.

"It's sort of startling," Clark said of the anniversary. "We didn't expect it to last this long. It's always been somewhat precarious."

"When we started out we were tremendously naive," Lehman said. "We were Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney saying 'Let's publish a national magazine!' We've always been that little guy."

Indeed, perhaps the magazine's most persuasive quality is its populist appeal. In a literary world often described as a subset of a subset of people writing for another subset, Rosebud has charged in and wrestled down sacred cows, championed unknown writers, and, in doing so, has incorporated the best of Wisconsin's progressive tradition in its approach.

R. Virgil Ellis, who serves as associate editor, art director and Web designer for Rosebud, said, "Rosebud is sophisticated, but I don't think it's pretentious. I don't think it puts on airs."

Fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction/essays are mixed together in thematic sections designed to pique reader interest. And the overall feel is not coastal, Clark said. "It's what a friend of mine described as the Middle Coast," he added.

Ironically, the magazine first gained traction in New York and Los Angeles and grew outward. Only in the last few years has the magazine begun to attract a stronger base of small town and rural readers, growing back into its roots. "We're not your father's literary magazine. We're not your kid's creative writing exercise either," Clark said. "We're a publication that comes out of nowhere, that is published by not much of anybody and that is read throughout North America."

The journal is distributed in 900-plus stores in the United States and Canada, carried by Borders Bookstore in London and distributed in Japan. In addition, the magazine has attracted subscribers from all over the world. Its circulation fluctuates around 4,000, but it has reached the 5,000 mark -- a feat in a rarified world where some literary magazines circulate a mere 200-300 copies.

Although Clark and Lehman have been known to argue loudly over issues about Rosebud or writing in general, the two have the highest regard for one another. In fact, Clark credits Lehman's force of personality as part of the magazine's success. He describes Lehman as half Papa Hemingway and half P.T. Barnum.

Lehman, in turn, credits Clark with helping keep the magazine running, particularly at the eight year mark when Lehman ran out of "money and steam" after spending nearly a decade managing every detail of the literary journal's day-to-day operations. Clark stepped in and took over the role of publisher in addition to his role as editor, allowing Lehman to become editor-at-large and advertising manager.

But if Rosebud defies every expectation, what makes it so popular? None of the men have a definitive answer to that question -- just ideas.

Lehman casts his vote for the storytelling that Rosebud showcases. He cites the rise of corporate, mass-produced culture that doesn't allow readers to engage in or to be directly involved in the process of enjoying a story. Indeed, in Rosebud, a reader is as likely to find a story by an unknown Midwestern writer as that of a well-known writer such as Philip K. Dick.

And issues 1-26 were designed by Pomplun, an artist with deep ties to the graphic novel community, allowing the magazine to attract established and emerging graphic art talent such as Robert Crumb and Frank Stack and to build a reputation as something a lot different in a world of homogeneous literary journals. "I think we wanted to create a magazine that was intelligent, but not necessarily in a stiff or an academic way," Clark said. "We didn't want to dumb our magazine down. Instead we wanted to treat all readers as intelligent readers."

The Rosebud crew will kick off its year-long anniversary celebration at the Wisconsin Book Festival at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15 at Avol's Bookstore. The event, titled "How the Story Goes: A Symposium on the Importance and Future of the Short Story--in Celebration of Rosebud's 15th Anniversary," will feature Lehman as moderator discussing the future of the narrative form, from children's books to graphic novels to literary fiction.

For more information about the journal or the event, visit www.rsbd.net or www.wisconsinbookfestival.org.