Home » Newpages Blog » Southwest Review – 2003

Southwest Review – 2003

Volume 88

2003

Weston Cutter

Oh Sally Bingham and William Wenthe! Oh John DeCaire and Kathryn Ma! Of the 28 authors with work in this journal, the sighing, huge vowel and exclamation could be used on just about any of them. The Southwest Review comes out of Dallas, Texas and while its cover trumpets nothing so much as a mature, almost National Affairs-esque sobriety (the lower half of the cover is a list of the work inside, and maybe it’s just me, but I’d take a cover like Tin House and get my ingredient list from the table of contents), the work within wanders different trails.

Oh Sally Bingham and William Wenthe! Oh John DeCaire and Kathryn Ma! Of the 28 authors with work in this journal, the sighing, huge vowel and exclamation could be used on just about any of them. The Southwest Review comes out of Dallas, Texas and while its cover trumpets nothing so much as a mature, almost National Affairs-esque sobriety (the lower half of the cover is a list of the work inside, and maybe it’s just me, but I’d take a cover like Tin House and get my ingredient list from the table of contents), the work within wanders different trails. Truly, Sally Bingham’s Transgressions, published in 2002 by Sarabande, was astounding, and her fiction herein is as exemplary. John DeCaire is the author of the essay “The Boys’ Book of Despair,” an essay that, through Jack London and his drinking, covers too many startling aspects to mention. Cynthia Nadelman’s “Watertight” is a devastating poem, Alice Jones’ “Muddy Hollow” will take you, that’s the best I can express it, and Helen Barolini’s “The End of My Giacomo Joyce Affair” is a surprisingly agile and interesting bit of literary detective work, behind-the-scenes intellectual infighting, and peace. I admit: this is the first time I’ve ever even seen a copy of The Southwest Review, though I can verifiably say: I’d be an idiot if it’s the last. [The Southwest Review, 307 Fondren Library West, Southern Methodist University, PO Box 750374, Dallas TX 75275-0374. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $6. http://www.southwestreview.org/] – WC

Spread the word!