William & Mary Review – 2003

This thin, glossy little number could fairly be classified as Eye Candy. With full-color art to accompany each piece of literature, it is nothing short of visually stunning. From the dramatically minimalist black and white photography of Neila Kun to the evocative oils of Sergei Silverbeer, the artwork represented here is expansive enough to serve as anyone’s cup of tea. Where literature is concerned, there is a fair mix of quality poetry and prose, tending somewhat toward the scholarly (this is not a market for wildly free-form, experimental verse). 

This thin, glossy little number could fairly be classified as Eye Candy. With full-color art to accompany each piece of literature, it is nothing short of visually stunning. From the dramatically minimalist black and white photography of Neila Kun to the evocative oils of Sergei Silverbeer, the artwork represented here is expansive enough to serve as anyone’s cup of tea. Where literature is concerned, there is a fair mix of quality poetry and prose, tending somewhat toward the scholarly (this is not a market for wildly free-form, experimental verse). Though there was a disappointing exclusion of female writing from this volume, the boys came out swinging in good form. Mitchell Metz’s vignette of an injured raccoon struggling primordially against death, set as it is within a mundane human backdrop, leaves the reader in ecstasies of empathy. And then there are the perfectly selected words of Donald Platt, presenting us with the picture of “smashed beach glass that the ocean’s molars grind down / to the sweet smoothness / of half-sucked lozenges.” All in all, The William & Mary Review is a delightfully showy, well-executed tome that, while edgy enough to escape seeming stodgy, is sufficiently academic to garner the respect of readers, writers and artists alike. [The William & Mary Review, P.O. Box 8795, VA 23187-8795. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $5.50.] – SRP