580 Split – 2007

580 Split calls itself “A Journal of Arts and Letters.” If there is any overall theme to its roughly one hundred and thirty pages of poetry, short fiction and single interview, it can be “seeking.” Many of the poems and characters in the prose seem to be searching, not necessarily for something, but in an existential manner. The poetry is quite modern. Derek Pollard’s “Vine Street Lightens the Streetlights Out” is arranged visually in something of an octagon, with words overlaid to the point of unreadability, yet readable enough to pass on a message, which manages to be stronger than the striking visual impact.

580 Split calls itself “A Journal of Arts and Letters.” If there is any overall theme to its roughly one hundred and thirty pages of poetry, short fiction and single interview, it can be “seeking.” Many of the poems and characters in the prose seem to be searching, not necessarily for something, but in an existential manner. The poetry is quite modern. Derek Pollard’s “Vine Street Lightens the Streetlights Out” is arranged visually in something of an octagon, with words overlaid to the point of unreadability, yet readable enough to pass on a message, which manages to be stronger than the striking visual impact.

The poetry contest winner, “About an Apple Fatal” by Bethany Wright, is full of ironies, alliteration, added grunts and groans; it is very inventive and might be best read aloud. The aptly named “Deluge in Formation” by Will Alexander will cause you to lose yourself in its discordant imagery: “If one believes oneself as stasis / there exists no seepage / no neural density or scar.” The short fiction exists as fully developed little worlds that will completely pull you in. “The Birthday Party” by Susanna Horng is a wistful, strangely uplifting tale about marital infidelity, its evils and fruits. In “Tornadoes,” Sean Bernard touchingly reveals a novel passion, an unusual marital thorn. “Greasy Pink,” by Susan Chiavelli, the Fiction Contest Winner, is excellent, thought provoking, and perhaps the most traditional of the short stories here. It is about peer pressure gone bad and the emerging individual. Try 580 Split if you are looking for new angles. The wildly colorful, abstract cover art by Will Alexander, “The Chromatic Continuum” is a clue that you’re in for an unusual treat.
[www.580split.com]