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Thereby Hangs a Tale – Summer 2007

Issue 2

Summer 2007

Robert Duffer

The debut of a journal brings tentative excitement to the entrenched literary scene. Can a newbie survive a crowded marketplace funded largely by ego? What distinctive editorial vision will buoy the perils of distribution, promotion, and un(der)appreciation? Some sink, some sail, but the masthead of the second issue of Thereby Hangs a Tale includes the crew’s superpowers, which can only help. Based out of Portland, Oregon, the slender, black-and-white journal runs regular sections, like Tales Told (nonfiction), Tall Tales (fiction), Rants, a closing We ♥ Libraries, and a journal-entry-like sprinkling of revelations. The editors call it an art project; the content, like the contributors who range from novelists to retirees, is free of literary pretensions and silly snobbery.

The debut of a journal brings tentative excitement to the entrenched literary scene. Can a newbie survive a crowded marketplace funded largely by ego? What distinctive editorial vision will buoy the perils of distribution, promotion, and un(der)appreciation? Some sink, some sail, but the masthead of the second issue of Thereby Hangs a Tale includes the crew’s superpowers, which can only help. Based out of Portland, Oregon, the slender, black-and-white journal runs regular sections, like Tales Told (nonfiction), Tall Tales (fiction), Rants, a closing We ♥ Libraries, and a journal-entry-like sprinkling of revelations. The editors call it an art project; the content, like the contributors who range from novelists to retirees, is free of literary pretensions and silly snobbery.

Several pieces, most of which were well under the 2,000-word limit, had literal interpretations of birth, the theme of this issue. Miscarriages (one Tall, one Told), unwelcome disclosures, harrowing deliveries all get due attention. The memorable stories, however, were less conventional. “To scare them off, I pulled out a spray bottle of Fantastik and shot at the nest. Both birds went ballistic,” Jill Dearman illustrates her comic plight in “Pigeon Anguish.” Parents get rid of a wayward son to protect their growing daughter in Paul A. Toth’s “In Our Own Company.” In K. Bannerman’s “The Hired Man,” the title narrator takes a high-paying summer job that includes wearing a burlap bag over his head.

The magazine-sized layout is balanced and easily read, and the editors compile a varied pool of contributors. The overall sense of the journal is that it is sharing something intimate yet universal with its reader, which should keep it navigating for years to come.
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