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Posted Jan 16, 2005
[reviews in alphabetical order by title]
The
Allegheny Review
A National Journal of
Undergraduate Literature
Volume 22
2004
What comes to mind when you think of undergraduate
writing? Overwriting? Sentimentality? Fuzzy thinking? Certainly I
had my doubts when I cracked open the cover of Allegheny Review,
an annual devoted to the work of undergraduates. Yet, although I
found one or two examples of overwriting, I was pleased to find my
doubts largely ungrounded. The writing in Allegheny is
clear—so refreshingly clear that some of our more mature poets could
take a lesson. A stark sonnet on a woman’s abortion blows any notion
of sentimentality out of the water. Allegheny bestows an
annual poetry award, this year honoring Ingrid Moody, represented in
this volume with five graceful and understated poems worthy of
publication in any poetry journal. A few fiction selections round
out this issue. Though they seem less strong than the poetry, there
are some moments in them that shine, such as Camron Terwilliger’s
description of the title character from his award-winning story
“Lighthouse Keeper”: “He set aside his yolk-stained dish, and began
to whistle low plaintive notes, his sallow cheeks bulging like
sails.” A subscription to Allegheny would make a welcome and
satisfying gift to an undergraduate with a passion for writing. [The
Allegheny Review, Box 32, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA 16335.
E-mail: review@allegheny.edu. Single issue $4.
http://review.allegheny.edu.]
– DM
Alligator
Juniper
Number 9
2004
Contributors' notes and their remarks take up
fourteen pages and while writers' comments can enrich the work or
detract from it, these comments are both useful and interesting.
This is especially true for the poetry, extraordinary work by
fourteen gifted poets, including student prize winner Kat Darling.
There is much variety here, work that ranges from lyrical to edgy,
all of it strong and original. In his remarks, James Jay lets us
know that his poem was inspired by a 19th century Muslim poet from
India, a poet whose confidence he humbly professes to envy, though
"Today Let's Call Ourselves Gahlib," is the work of a poet who
deserves to have confidence in himself: "Ghalib, dig up that cougar
your father / buried at the beginning of summer. / He wants to teach
you about biology. Go find that corpse, // less cleanly picked /
than his science / had hoped…" I must single out poems by Jendi
Reiter, Christina Hutchins, and Richard Kenefic, too, although there
isn't a poem in this issue I would want any reader to miss. Michael
Petracca's essay, "Plover Mind," about his work in the Snowy Plover
Docent Program in California, is marvelous, part science lesson,
part personal essay, part primer on haiku. [Alligator Juniper,
Prescott College, 220 Grove Avenue, Prescott, AZ 86301. E-mail: aj@prescott.edu.
Single issue $7.50.
www.prescott.edu/highlights/alligator_junper.] -
SR
At
Length
Issue 4
Summer 2004
As numerous literary magazines are focusing on
flash-fiction and other short writing forms, At Length stands
out as the only magazine I know of devoted entirely to long form
work. Each issue features a long story or novella and a long poem.
The story, “Small Mercies,” in this issue is by Tim Winton, whom I’m
informed has “won every major award in Australia.” Frankly, at only
28 pages, it was not as long as I would have imagined, which is no
problem since the story is great. It revolves around a man moving
back to his hometown with his son after his wife’s suicide and
manages to end in an unexpected direction. This particular issue
also features a series of minimalist sketches by William Cordova
titled “BADUSSY,” which I thought were excellent. I’ve never found
poetry to work very well in long form, but Anne Winters’ narrative
poem “An Immigrant Woman” held my interest till the end. [At Length,
PO Box 594, New York NY, 10185. E-mail: info@atlengthmag.com. Single
issue $5. www.atlengthmag.com/]
– LM
The
Bitter Oleander
Volume 10 Number 2
2004
This journal is always unpredictable and sometimes
even startling. Editor Paul B. Roth promises to free us from
"enslavement to the usual and expected" and the unexpected is
certainly one of The Bitter Oleander's trademarks. "The fish
arrived in my dresser drawer, / swathed in socks, its eyes calm as a
desert."—a poem by Katherine Sanchez Espano opens the issue. This
fish has something to say, of course: "I open its mouth and see
pictures / of a lost Ticuman woman / who looks like me.” "The Fish"
is representative of the issue as a whole: powerful work that means
to change the way we think about the world around us or, at the very
least, to change the way we read. The centerpiece of the issue is a
series of poems by six Mexican poets, along with their "ars poetica."
While I would like to have seen the Spanish (marvelous poems by
Casimiro de Brito are also presented here both in Portuguese and in
translation), for the most part, the translations are fluid and
sensitive. I didn't stumble, wondering what the original might have
been. I wish I could retype every one of these poems here, as
whatever I will say is insufficient to convey the range, depth, and
strength of this work. "Poetry shatters your mouth" Martin Camps
reminds us in his poem, "Persistence of Water." And so it does. [The
Bitter Oleander, 4983 Tall Oaks Drive, Fayetteville, New York
13066-9776. E-mail:
info@bitteroleander.com. Single issue $8.
www.bitteroleander.com]
– SR
Carve
Number 3
Summer 2004
Carve is a slim
volume featuring the work of six poets, five of whom hail from
Massachusetts, the journal’s former home base. One of the six poets
presents “A Birthday Acrostic for Mark Lamoureux,” Lamoureux being a
contributor in Carve’s first issue. On the title page
interested poets are requested to “please inquire before
submitting.” It all lends a certain air of clubbiness to this
volume. Still, that sense should not deter anyone from picking up a
copy of Carve. These six are masterful poets, pushing
language to work in new ways. The poems are oblique enough to
maintain interest and challenge, but not so obscure as to alienate.
Jess Mynes, in the poem “in West Virginia, in 1938” asks, “suppose
it foretells / a multitude / of kissing? / hope is too like despair
/ accustomed to the open throat / for sorrow is so often a tidy /
secret.” In “M,” from a series entitled “Threnodies,” Christopher
Rizzo engages in terrific sound play. “Once by the Pacific, Maud
cherished / the sea she saw new eyed. An undulation / cryptic, lit
glittery and gulls / were prows, proud and crowded in element.” You
may not have the special knock to gain entry into this club, but the
curtains are pulled back at the window. Take a peek at this elite
class of poets. [Carve, 221 W. Lincoln, #2, Ithaca, NY 14850.
E-mail: carvepoems@yahoo.com. Single issue $5.
www.fishblog.blogspot.com] – DM
Crazyhorse
Number 66
Fall 2004
Crazyhorse is one of
the older American literary magazines, this being its 45th
year, and it is nice to see the magazine still willing to publish
writing that takes risks. While inevitably some of these fail, there
is plenty of material here for the cost. One story that did work was
Stephen Tuttle’s “The Funambulist,” which deals with how a town
mythologizes the suicide of one of its members: “Our teenagers were
not there the day the man walked into and then off our tallest
building, but they know people who were. They have all the details.”
Eerie and intriguing. Overall, the poetry outweighs the fiction in
this issue. Highlights include three beautiful poems from Romanian
poet Liliana Ursu (in both English and Romanian) and another three
by James Tate, who once again highly impressed me. [Crazyhorse,
Department of English, College of Charleston, 66 George St.,
Charleston, SC 29424. E-mail: crazyhorse@cofc.edu. Single issue
$8.50.
http://crazyhorse.cofc.edu/] – LM
First
Intensity
A Magazine of New Writing
Number 18
2003
What to say about this journal? There’s so much to
like among the fiction, from Lucy Bucknell’s Kafkaesque “Vanishing
Act” to Sean Mclain Brown’s exquisite short shorts. And Carol
Moldaw’s sequential poem “Anastylosis” is a joy to read.
Unfortunately, for me, too much of the poetry in First Intensity
sounds like these opening lines from the first poem: “would begin
anywhere, wouldn’t you, as if there / was still there, and you /
still yourself in this phenomenological drift to- // wards some
all-but- / il- // lusory absolution.” If you like this kind of
writing—and many people do—you’ll be very happy with this journal.
But if you’re like me, chafing under the burdens imposed by this
style, you’ll grow frustrated searching for the gems of clarity.
There’s no doubt that First Intensity is an excellent
journal. It simply isn’t an excellent journal for me. [First
Intensity, P.O. Box 665, Lawrence, KS 66044. E-mail: leechapman@aol.com.
Single issue $14.
www.firstintensity.com/] – DM
Harrington
Lesbian Fiction Quarterly
Volume 5 Number 3
2004
Editor Judith P. Stelboum ponders the purpose of a
journal "devoted solely to lesbian writing" and concludes that
"though some of us are still individually invisible, we must never
be culturally invisible." Here are six stories, a half-dozen poems,
and some artwork to keep the images and stories of lesbians not only
visible, but vivid. The strongest work this issue is a seductive
piece of short fiction by Jane Eklund, "The Story So Far." Eklund
knows how to exploit the story-inside-a-story convention to its
fullest, seducing us even as we might resist (oh, no, not another
older woman/younger woman/-experienced writer/novice-met in an
academic setting-is this love or idol worship plot). I tried to
resist, frankly, but Eklund won me over with her clever prose:
"Then, under her intense scrutiny, I couldn't remember if I was
ascending or descending the ladder." Laure Close's "Extreme
Art"—paintings, web site graphics, sketches, and metal sculpture—are
especially interesting for their variety in tone and approach, from
uplifting and ethereal to tense and fiery. Jennifer Wagley's "Open
Dyke" pokes clever fun at some of the idiosyncratic aspects of
"lesbian culture" (culture as in social norms and environment), and
Kathie Bergquist's story, "Still, Life," is, like its title, an
example of how complex simple prose can be. [Harrington Lesbian
Fiction Quarterly, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580.
www.HaworthPress.com] –
SR
The Hudson
Review
Volume 57 Number 3
Autumn 2004
This issue begins, appropriately, with a tribute
to founding editor Frederick Morgan (1922-2004). In an interview
with board member Michael Peich, Morgan's description of the journal
couldn't be more apt: "ongoing intellectual companionship." In this
issue we are extremely well accompanied by an admirable, ambitious,
and utterly readable historical "verse novel" by David Mason, a
poetic narrative (a fictive poetry) based on the Ludlow mine
massacre of 1914 in Colorado (unlike many large "projects," this
piece is as satisfying to read as it must have been to write); a
masterfully crafted and beautifully disturbing story by Julie Keith,
about the emotional abuse of a young girl and best of all, clever,
biting reviews of poetry by Robert Phillips (one of the most
intelligent, honest, and entertaining sets of reviews I have ever
read), and Robert McDowell's brilliant review of J. Edward
Chamberlain's If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories—an
assessment so convincing I immediately sought out the book. If you
are looking for intellectual companionship in the form of serious
reading, authoritative voices, and strong, well articulated
opinions, this issue is essential. [Hudson Review, 684 Park Avenue,
New York, NY 10021. Single issue $9.
www.hudsonreview.com] –
SR
Image
Art, Faith, Mystery
Number 43
Fall 2004
This issue of Image–a journal that seeks to
explore the relationship between culture and (typically)
Judeo-Christian conceptions of God, and does so in a consistently
thoughtful manner–is notable once again for its intelligent
interrogations of received ideas about religion. Editor Gregory
Wolfe begins with a short essay in which he reminds readers that
“[f]aith is openness to divine mystery, an openness that requires
humility and a vivid awareness of the fragility and contingency of
our human formulations. What critics [...] glibly characterize as
faith is really ideology.” As Wolfe contends, it’s vital, in a world
that seems to be splitting itself into two radically opposed
ideological camps, to bear in mind this distinction. Wolfe also has
praise for Christian groups that “move [...] discourse away from
mere apologetics into probing reflections.” Many such reflections
are to be found here, from fiction by K. Alexander Cooper featuring
a stripping Baptist preacher struggling to lead his congregation and
himself to a higher level of understanding, to poetry by Nicolas
Samaras, Christine Perrian and others that proves “religious” poems
do not inevitably contain majestic mountains bathed in holy light.
Hearkening back to Flannery O’Connor’s essays on writing and
religion (and quoting from them) is Bret Lott’s “Why Have We Given
Up the Ghost?” and if that weren’t enough, there’s also a piece by
Ron Austin called “Christians in Hollywood.” I was most delighted to
see two long, incisive essays about the fabulous artwork run in this
issue; so often the most one can count on in a literary magazine is
an artist’s statement. While overall this journal has a few too many
references to the Bible, Jesus as Savior, and prayer for someone who
prefers her spirituality couched in different metaphors, I still
found much that spoke to me, and anyone interested in reconciling a
devout Christian faith with the pursuit of art and literature will
find this journal, and this issue, a gem. [Image, 3307 Third Avenue
West, Seattle, WA 98119. E-mail: image@imagejournal.org. Single issue
$10. www.imagejournal.org]
– KL
The
New York Quarterly
Number 60
2004
You gotta love a journal that covers such a broad
range of poetic styles. New York Quarterly has all the bases
covers: Traditional sonnet? Check. Prose poem? Check. Bukowski poem?
Stand-up poem? Found poem? Check, check, check. There’s a somewhat
rambling essay on the status of poetry today, but more enjoyable is
the interview with poet Gary Goude about the nuts and bolts of
writing poetry. Goude’s poem “Do You Consider” stands out among all
the fine writing in this issue, with its deadpan approach to the
disposal of dead bodies. He considers burial and cremation, then
concedes that “There are other ways / the shark / the jackal / flies
/ maggots. / You will not / be wasted.” New York Quarterly is
difficult to characterize since it is so eclectic in its approach.
Perhaps “a sampler” is the best way to describe it—but a sampler of
only the very best. [The New York Quarterly, P.O. Box 693, Old
Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113. E-mail:
info@nyquarterly.com.
Single issue $8.
www.nyquarterly.com/] – DM
Room
of One’s Own
Volume 27 Number 3
2004
This issue of Room–a quarterly out of
Vancouver published since 1975 by, for and about women, with
stories, poetry and reviews chosen by an editorial collective–makes
scars its central metaphor. As editor Lana Okerlund notes, “many
synonyms for scar are negative: imperfection, blemish,
disfigurement. But, in life, as in many of the stories, poetry and
artworks in this issue, scars are more paradoxical than these
synonyms imply.” Scars, at least as Room envisions them, are
signs of change and healing, and any woman who has been less than
comfortable with her bodily “imperfections” (i.e. all of us) will
appreciate the insights offered here. Notable is a series of
“artifact” poems by Michelin Maylor, among them “short blue dress /
Rough in texture / Let out for maternity” and one “good ring / Five
small diamonds / Approx. 1/4 carat per / Platinum band,” as well as
“purposely not-flattering” self-portraits by Adrienne Trager that
are meant to “reflect the discrepancy between the way that I
perceive myself, and the actual shape I take.” Also stunning is the
cover image, “Bound,” by Stephanie A. Bush, a work that seeks to
express “containment and confinement of the female form”
simultaneously. The fiction in this issue is likewise to be
applauded, with pieces that range from the tale of a woman about to
undergo surgery to remove excess skin after radical weight loss, to
a young wife attempting to deal with an unpredictable oven, an
equally unpredictable elderly neighbor, and her own off-kilter
mental state, to the eerie self-flagellations of a half-crazed nun.
Overall, another excellent installment of quality art and writing by
women. [Room of One’s Own, PO Box 46160, Station D, Vancouver, BC,
V6J 5G5. E-mail: contactus@roommagazine.com. Single issue $9
(Canadian).
www.roommagazine.com] – KL
Salmagundi
Numbers 144-145
Fall 2004-Winter 2005
Big names and big reputations here, as always:
Nadine Gordimer, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Howard, Chase Twichell,
Honor Moore, C.K. Williams. Take this issue along if you're planning
a long plane ride or a day of waiting somewhere, you won't run out
of reading material and you'll be able to escape whatever drudgery
surrounds you. The work here is dense, solid, and serious.
Gordimer's story, "Alleserlorenn," is not to be missed. It is
representative of her understated style and a fine study of the
psychology of grief. There are twenty gorgeous (serious, even
solemn) poems nothing superfluous, nothing "occasional," nothing
experimental. The "Memoirs and Letters" section is especially
intriguing. Williams' "Letter to a German Friend," seems not merely
timely, but necessary: "…we dwell on that demented time [the
Holocaust] of death not because it allows us to imagine ourselves
morally superior to anyone else—that would be something like a
pornography of dread—but because we still live in a world in which
there is always somewhere in effect a violent symbolic loathing of
one sort of another…" Michael Blumenthal's "Letter to a
Psychoanalyst" is a curious blend of personal observation and
academic discourse. The shrink whose narcissism has done Blumenthal
a "disservice" may or not be a generic psychoanalyst, but anyone who
has ever mis-spent a dime on therapy will appreciate his provocative
critique of the psychoanalytic process. [Salmagundi, Skidmore
College, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. E-mail: salmagun@skidmore.edu.
Single issue $8.
www.skidmore.edu/salmagundi/141/index.htm] –
SR
Stray
Dog
Number 4
2004
With edgy poetry and quirky short shorts, Stray
Dog is fun—really, really fun. This issue starts off with a
prose poem—usually not the first selection in a journal—about a man
writing prose poems. Michael Cocchiarale’s short short, “Other Side
of the Bed,” is wildly entertaining, describing a man looking over
his wife’s side of the bed for the first time in thirty years and
discovering another man—and his apartment. My favorite piece, Robert
Roley’s “No One Shall Swim Alone,” frankly shocks me: “I am swimming
alone. I should not be doing so. Behind me there is nothing but
water. To my right and left there is nothing but water. Ahead of me
there is nothing but water. It is an inconvenient time to stop
swimming.” If you’re looking for writing with a little bite, you
can’t go wrong with Stray Dog. [Stray Dog, P.O. Box 713,
Amawalk, NY 10501. E-mail: straydog@bestweb.net. Single issue $6.
www.prillyandtru.com.] –
DM
This
Magazine
Because Everything is Political
Volume 38 Number 3
November/December 2004
This Magazine is a
delightfully eclectic little glossy out of Toronto that has been in
publication since the 1960's. The magazine has recently seen some
format changes, as it attempts, in the words of editor Patricia
D’Souza, to define what it “means to be a magazine of alternative
culture in a time when alternative culture has become a mainstream
concept.” This will no longer run single-theme centered
issues, choosing instead to “adop[t] a storytelling approach that is
more responsive to current events.” Certainly there is plenty that
is current here, including stories on the Canadian indie music
scene, prescribed burns in the Yukon, an innovative automobile
pricing structure aimed at reducing traffic congestion that would
charge drivers taxes and insurance based on actual miles traveled, a
hefty profile on often under-reported domestic abuse by cops, and
the truth about the Hudson Bay Company’s signature striped blankets,
to describe only a few articles. If all this weren’t enough, this
issue also contains excellent fiction and poetry by the winners of
the Great Canadian Literary Hunt, as well as reviews of recent books
and CDs. If you’re a writer heading to Vancouver for the upcoming
Associated Writing Programs conference, and want to be up on the
Canadian cultural scene, you’ll definitely want to check This
out. [This Magazine, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 396, Tornoto,
Ontario, M5V 3A8. E-mail: editor@thismagazine.ca. Single issue $4.95
(Canadian).
www.thismagazine.ca] – KL
Tiferet
A Journal of Spiritual
Literature
Volume I Number 2
Numbers 1 & 2, Issue 54
2004
Ignore the over-sized, cursive drop caps that
begin each piece (inelegantly in their aggressive elegance) and
concentrate on the larger-than-life sized prose in this issue. When
I think of "spiritual literature," I think first of poetry, and
there certainly are some memorable poems here (most notably work by
Rachel Hadas, Kathleen Graber, and ellen), but it's the prose that,
surprisingly and delightfully, commands my attention above all. This
issue is worth the steep price alone for an amazing, heartbreaking,
and inspiring story by Marie Sheppard Williams who strikes a
difficult balance between humor and pathos in a story that takes up
the subject of homelessness in the harsh Minnesota winter, "Jeane 49
Duluth." This story was so good, I'd buy any journal where Sheppard
Williams appears in the Table of Contents. Liz Rosenberg's "Eden"
deserves special mention, too. In both stories it's the unusual tone
(casually deliberate or deliberately casual) that makes the pieces
so successful. All in all, there are ten fine pieces of short
fiction here, two dozen poems, and five essays that range from
literary criticism to Biblical exegesis to Greg Cook's thoughtful
essay on the origins of the word "walking" and its literal and
metaphoric role in our lives as spiritual beings. [Tiferet, PO Box
659, Peapack, NJ 07977-0659. E-mail: editors@tiferetjournal.com.
Single issue $14.95.
www.tiferetjournal.com] – SR
West
Branch
Number 55
Fall/Winter 2004
There is only one word for this journal: superb.
This fall/winter issue features a dazzling array of top-notch poetry
that includes Matt Zambito’s “The Word on the Street,” John
Surowiecki’s “Imaginary Seascape with Literary Orphans” who “dream
of making sail / for some island where they’ll find no word / for
themselves and where the most valuable gift / anyone can give them
is indifference,” Nancy Van Winckel’s “The Very Monday,” and many,
many others. The fiction sparkles as well, and stories such as Sean
Bernard’s “Targets” and Marjorie Hudson’s “Self-Portrait in
Camouflage,” are so beautifully complex they defy simple synopsis.
It’s no surprise that most of the magazine’s contributors are
well-seasoned enough to have published at least one book. West
Branch has been published bi-annually at the Stadler Center for
Poetry at Bucknell University since 1977. That’s over 25 years of
continuous existence. It’s easy to see why this terrific magazine
been so long-lived. [West Branch, Bucknell Hall, Bucknell
University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837. E-mail: westbranch@bucknell.edu.
Single issue $6.
www.bucknell.edu/westbranch] – KL
Reviewers (see
Contributors
page)
MC - Mark Cunningham
DM - Deborah Mead
LKB - Lisa Buchanan
LM - Lincoln Michel
JHG - Jeannine Hall Gailey
SR - Sima Rabinowitz
JQG - Jennifer Gomoll AS - Ann Stapleton
KL - Kathe Lison
Edited by Denise Hill
December 2004
November 2004
Cumulative Index of Lit Mags Reviewed