Urban Spaghetti – 2004

The theme of this issue of Urban Spaghetti, an “intermittently”-published, progressive journal out of Ohio, is “The Women!” The journal features mostly poetry, including poems by big shots like Marge Piercy and Virgil Suarez, but also photography (mainly of women of diverse races and ages) and two interesting interviews, one with children’s book author Angela Johnson and another with poet and artist Cheryl “Cat” Townsend. The poetry is generally narrative and street-smart, contemporary, as opposed to traditional, but, in a fresh act, they have separated the “sauce” section (more experimental work, work by newcomers) from the “pasta” (established writers, more traditional or narrative work). Also included with the journal is a multimedia CD, which had a .pdf version of the issue, audio files of poets reading poems from the issue, and image files of the art and photography. As you might expect in an issue called “The Women!” the theme of much of the work is women’s actions, ideas, and activities, but there are a balance of male and female writers. A lot to like here – I hope there is another issue to look forward to soon. [Urban Spaghetti, P.O. Box 5186, Mansfield, OH 44901-5186. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $10.00. http://www.urban-spaghetti.com] – JHG

The theme of this issue of Urban Spaghetti, an “intermittently”-published, progressive journal out of Ohio, is “The Women!” The journal features mostly poetry, including poems by big shots like Marge Piercy and Virgil Suarez, but also photography (mainly of women of diverse races and ages) and two interesting interviews, one with children’s book author Angela Johnson and another with poet and artist Cheryl “Cat” Townsend. The poetry is generally narrative and street-smart, contemporary, as opposed to traditional, but, in a fresh act, they have separated the “sauce” section (more experimental work, work by newcomers) from the “pasta” (established writers, more traditional or narrative work). Also included with the journal is a multimedia CD, which had a .pdf version of the issue, audio files of poets reading poems from the issue, and image files of the art and photography. As you might expect in an issue called “The Women!” the theme of much of the work is women’s actions, ideas, and activities, but there are a balance of male and female writers. A lot to like here – I hope there is another issue to look forward to soon. [Urban Spaghetti, P.O. Box 5186, Mansfield, OH 44901-5186. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $10.00. http://www.urban-spaghetti.com] – JHG

 

The Poetry Miscellany

Issue 29

2003

This zine comes out only once a year, and while it isn’t much to look at (watch for typos – I ran across five in my first reading) looking like it was photocopied in someone’s basement, it is actually produced by the English Department of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and boasts some surprisingly sophisticated content. This issue focused mainly on translations of Italian, Croatian, and Slovene poetry. From a translation of Sandro Penna by Jacob Blakesley:

Cemetery lights, don’t tell me
that the summer evening isn’t beautiful.
And the drivers are beautiful in
the faraway taverns.

They move like ancient
friezes under the sky
newly constellated.

The featured poet was the prominent and award-winning Dara Wier, and there were also lively interviews with Bob Hicok and Iztok Osojnik. Another journal we have to hope survives so we can see more of this ambitious sort of work. [Poetry Miscellany, English Department, UT Chattanooga, TN, 37403. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $7.00. www.utc.edu/~engldept/pm/pmhp.html] – JHG