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Indiana Review – Winter 2003

Volume 25 Number 2

Winter 2003

Jeannine Hall Gailey

Those of you who open up your copy of Indiana Review expecting a regional, Midwestern flavor are going to be in for a surprise. Many of the pieces in this sophisticated collection of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and reviews have a sharp, dark (dare I say cosmopolitan?) edge and a wicked sense of humor. For instance, the short story “In Bogalusa” by Paul Maliszewski conjures a reclusive Dorothy Parker who entombs herself in a Days Inn in rural Louisiana. Poems like “Jesus at the Help Desk” by Dana Roeser and the 2003 Indiana Review Poetry Prize award-winner, Maria McLeod’s “Regarding the Character you named Maria, teacher’s notes” use irreverent references in an intelligent way. There were also quite a few short-short pieces that walk the line between prose and poetry, among them the piece by Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis with the great title, “Manifesto of the Over Mitt:”

Those of you who open up your copy of Indiana Review expecting a regional, Midwestern flavor are going to be in for a surprise. Many of the pieces in this sophisticated collection of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and reviews have a sharp, dark (dare I say cosmopolitan?) edge and a wicked sense of humor. For instance, the short story “In Bogalusa” by Paul Maliszewski conjures a reclusive Dorothy Parker who entombs herself in a Days Inn in rural Louisiana. Poems like “Jesus at the Help Desk” by Dana Roeser and the 2003 Indiana Review Poetry Prize award-winner, Maria McLeod’s “Regarding the Character you named Maria, teacher’s notes” use irreverent references in an intelligent way. There were also quite a few short-short pieces that walk the line between prose and poetry, among them the piece by Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis with the great title, “Manifesto of the Over Mitt:”

3. We declare our allegiance to the stove, the occasional resentful foray to the backyard grill, where really a dishrag or potholder would do. No long-suffering upside-down cake of a sun or sum of our days. Though we be mere mitts, we be mitts of a new kitchen.

4. There is no beauty in the doily. there is no excuse for the doily.

A literary journal full of wit and energy. [Indiana Review, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall 465, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN, 47405-7103. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $8. indianareview.org] – JHG

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