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Seneca Review continues to showcase stellar poems and lyric essays by both unknown and familiar writers. Lucy Shutz’s poem, “The Philosophers Will Never Love the Poets and the Poets Will Continue to Smoke Cigarettes and Starve Themselves,” is adventurous and playful in style, while still dealing with some of the more serious problems of existence. Continue reading “Seneca Review – Fall 2003”

While writing about illness, as well as about practice of medicine, belongs to a long and respected tradition, recently there does seem to be increasing interest in publications that bridge this aspect of the art/science divide. This journal makes a worthwhile contribution to the field. Continue reading “The Healing Muse – Fall 2003”

Hunger Mountain takes itself seriously. Sophisticated and weighty, it has the appearance and feel of an older, more established journal, something it has managed to accomplish in a mere three issues. Continue reading “Hunger Mountain – Fall 2003”

Containing socio-political commentary, pop culture interest pieces, comics and even recipes, Kitchen Sink—something of a catchall—is aptly named. It’s more zine than litmag, though, and looks the part. Graphically stunning, the entire thing is printed in blue—a harbinger of novelty from the get-go. Right at home in indigo is “Out of Sight,” a poem by Jonathan Loucks that captures fabulously the not-quite-sadness of a man reflecting on the way a passionate relationship has become staider with time. As for the fiction, it has a highly Californian flavor, being full of heart but slightly left-of-center. More enjoyable are the delightful articles, especially “The Price of Parenthood,” which fairly addresses the ambivalence of modern would-be procreators. Another piece, about “why poetry readings suck,” is resonant with candor: Continue reading “Kitchen Sink – Summer 2003”

It’s incredibly, incredibly hard to pin down which aspect of this magazine works and sings best. The candy-striped cover with its ‘bubbles’ of text; the feature on “Senses of Humor” (featuring, at her and his best, pieces by Eleanor Wilner and David Rees, among plenty of phenomenal others), John Greenman’s “The Cowboy Poet,” Adam Dant’s mesmerizing art, G.C. Waldrep’s or Linh Dinh’s poetry (and about Waldrep: I mentioned his work from the fall Gettysburg Review without knowing that: (1) He’s in Iowa now, not N.C., and (2) He’s the 2003 winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry – remember that guy named Dean Young? Same award.). It’s a spellbinding read, this latest American Letters and Commentary, which is right in keeping with what this magazine does every time. Continue reading “American Letters & Commentary – 2003”

The winter issue of Prairie Schooner contains poetry, stories, and reviews, sprinkled with the names of literary stars like R.T. Smith and Alice Ostriker and some new voices as well. Particularly charming were Alice Friman’s imaginings on the biblical character Ruth in “Remembering in Lilac and Heart-Shaped Leaves,” and Annette Sanford’s story, “Spring ’41,” about a young girl whose beloved aunt comes to live with her in a conservative town – bringing an illegitimate baby with her. I also liked Steve Langan’s poem, “Apricots,” a sensual homage to William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say.” Here are a few lines from Langan’s poem: Continue reading “Prairie Schooner – Winter 2003”

This slender journal from Ohio State presents well-chosen fiction, poetry, and a piece of non-fiction, mostly from well-known writers such as Robin Behn and Gary Fincke. Not a lot of surprises here, but you’ll find solid selections to sink your teeth into. Continue reading “The Journal – Autumn/Winter 2003”

This mostly-poetry journal (with a smattering of photos and reviews) out of Evanston, Illinois succeeds in bringing new voices from the poetry world to light. This issue considers the metaphysical questions of spiritual versus human nature, in which speakers deal with their bodies’failures (“What I’m Not Writing,” “How to Continue,” “The Robust Young Man Discusses His Burial”) and with the failures of their faiths (“God is Not Talking,” “Paris Does Not Exist,” “Recidivism”). Here are a few lines from Danna Ephland’s “After Surgery”: Continue reading “Rhino – 2003”

You don’t have to be a religious scholar to appreciate the essays, short stories, art and poetry found in Image. In fact, many of the individual pieces included would easily fit in “general” literary journals. As a collection, the text explores the relationships between religion (mainly Judeo-Christian), culture and art in contemporary times. This issue offers two enlightening essays on the work of artists George Gittoes and Eric Fischl (artist of last year’s controversial Tumbling Woman, which generated a debate of how artists should represent the horrors of 9/11). Continue reading “Image – Summer 2003”

Another disarming newsprint journal (as in: Aha! You may look as if you are reading a perfectly respectable newspaper, but instead you are subversively reading poetry without being ostentatious about it), the quality of the paper belies what lies within. The prose here is always fascinating, featuring interviews with well-known poets (in this case, Christopher Merrill) and critical essays. The poetry contributions usually lean heavily towards translations and prose poems, and this issue is no exception, with a series of poems by Jean Cocteau translated by Charles Guenther, four poems by Constantine Cavafy translated from the Greek by Aliki Barnstone, and some very witty prose poems by Jeffrey Skinner. The inside-joke humor of “Day One,” simultaneously complaining about the egotism of writers who write a poem a day and actually writing a poem about writing a poem a day, is contagious. His two poems exploring theories in physics, “Many Worlds” and “White Dwarf,” juxtapose mundane and extraordinary details effectively. The rest of the poetry, including works by the likes of Tony Hoagland, Chard DeNiord, Robert Bly and Toi Derricotte, is strong and engaging, all worthy of excerpting here if there were only space. Suffice it to say that fans of both poetry and poetics will be satisfied with this issue. Continue reading “The American Poetry Review – Jan/Feb 2004”

There are many beautiful things to be found within the pages of the magazine that celebrates words as they are written, poems as they are whittled out, and art as it is imagined and incarnated by women. There are stories of love, of love lost, of shame and regret, of redemption and celebration. Poems of all the same themes. And art of still the same, wonderfully rendered, including several paintings by talented artist Heather Horton, with cover feature “Cheltenham Eden.” In the artist bio, Horton says she paints with “recurring themes of isolation, anticipation and solitude.” In looking at the front cover, it is not hard to imagine any of these themes. Continue reading “Room of One’s Own – 2003”

This issue opens with a Q & A of poet Juliana Baggott, who has several poems featured here. Her responses are quick-witted and funny, quite, I imagine, as you’d expect a poet’s to be. When asked why she doesn’t write formal poetry, she responds, “I mistake quatrain for Coltrane, terza rima for tiramisu,” and, while she agrees that “there is desperation in numbers, an attempt to keep account like naming babies in an orphanage hospital,” she admits that she will “forever 1-2-3 a waltz.” Witty indeed, and her poems – beautifully imagined and written. For example, in “The Stolen Poem: My Brother Poem after Levine’s ‘What Work Is’,” she writes, “He won’t admit to rain. Only / A break in the sun to wait out / My brother wait for it to unwind / amid the no-no of children, jazz, Scotch.” Continue reading “Third Coast – Fall 2003”

This issue of the famed Antioch Review is subtitled, “Circuses and Art Museums,” and it does not disappoint on either front. In Cathy Day’s story, “The Last Member of the Boela Tribe,” circus life is explored in all its glory with its underbelly exposed as well. The same can be said for the essays on the state of museums in the world, such as Neil MacGregor’s “A Pentecost in Trafalgar Square” and “Pictures, Tears, Lights, and Seats” by John Walsh. Continue reading “The Antioch Review – Fall 2003”

It’s a hard journal to gauge from the cover—a photo of, presumably, Shanghai, with a KFC billboard, Col. Sanders smiling from long past the grave, interrupting the Asian aesthetic. Continue reading “Michigan Quarterly Review – Fall 2003”

Oh Sally Bingham and William Wenthe! Oh John DeCaire and Kathryn Ma! Of the 28 authors with work in this journal, the sighing, huge vowel and exclamation could be used on just about any of them. The Southwest Review comes out of Dallas, Texas and while its cover trumpets nothing so much as a mature, almost National Affairs-esque sobriety (the lower half of the cover is a list of the work inside, and maybe it’s just me, but I’d take a cover like Tin House and get my ingredient list from the table of contents), the work within wanders different trails. Continue reading “Southwest Review – 2003”

What a find! This is as diverse a collection of writing as I have read in some time (with 42 entries on 60 pages – this is packed!). Anyone who has worked labor or second shift or a thankless-number-not-a-name job will find themselves within these pages. But don’t mistake the content (which is heavy on the poetry) as being all about work/ing. Oh, no –  there’s sensuality, as in Jillian Meyer’s “First Job” where she describes the post-shower relaxation that comes after work, the outdoor air blowing “gently into the warmer darkness behind my knees, / a drying breeze over a landscape not meant for fast travel / in the quiet of a night at home in my skin.” Natural imagery as metaphor roars in Cunningham’s “a hollow thunder” and walks us gently into the wood in Napolin’s “On Sunday.”  Continue reading “Blue Collar Review – Autumn 2003”

If you’re a literary traditionalist or an anal grammar/perfect-proof reader, leave. You’ll hate this publication. For the remaining (more forgiving) folks, let’s talk. The first section is a bit rough. I swear someone lost pages to the Manil Suri (“Death of Vishnu”) interview. But the “Letters to the Editor” start the engine purring. Look at these beginning sentences: “I love the rain / As a schoolgirl, I read the story of Hero and Leander for the first time in Arabic / I believe that human beings everywhere share similar joys and sorrows.” Continue reading “Thought Magazine – 2003”

A section of this issue of Field is dedicated to pieces in tribute to and discussion of James Wright, the poet who, among many literary achievements, brought to life the tragic and desolate landscapes of Martins Ferry, Ohio. Continue reading “Field – Fall 2003”

This hefty collection of essays, fiction, poetry, art and reviews defies easy categorization, such as “traditional,” “Southern regional” or “academic.” The issue starts out with a riveting essay by Gerald Stern and continues with wonderful pieces like Nance Van Winckel’s luminous short story, “Funeral of the Virgin,” and Michael Chitwood’s poem “The Cello.” Continue reading “The Georgia Review – Fall 2003”

The sizeable, glossy Green Mountains Review is filled, as always, with fresh and interesting work; this time many of the pieces have a metaphysical bent, but with a twist, such as poems that meditate on the true holiness of the phrase “Holy Shit,” that imagine Mary Magdalene’s conversations about Jesus at the tomb, and that consider explanations of mortality to a little boy at a crematorium. Half tongue-in-cheek, Charles Harper Webb’s poem “In Unromantic Times” bemoans our contemporary cynicism, and the death of romance, with an edge of real grief at the end: Continue reading “Green Mountains Review – Fall 2003”

The Green Tricycle is billed as the “Fun to Read” lit magazine, and it lives up to its mantra superbly. Each issue incorporates poetry, “flash-fiction” and “mini-drama” under three different themes that are tossed out prior to the issue’s publication so as to give writers ample time to craft a work based upon the requisite themes. Continue reading “The Green Tricycle – November 2003”

Measuring in at 6”x6”, this is a great little journal to tuck in a bag, purse, glovebox, computer bag, under a pillow or wherever you can think to stash it for truly quick reading. Keeping entries at under 500 words, this publication offers a zen approach to reading literature – just as we can remind ourselves to breathe during hectic days, this publication is an accessible reminder to read. Continue reading “Quick Fiction – Fall 2003”

This zine-styled publication should be on the required reading list for college-level creative writing and poetry classes: a jewel of a compact scholarly literary supplement that can provide the basis for numerous discussions and approaches to poetry. Continue reading “Free Lunch – Autumn 2003”

Always satisfying, this issue is intensely exciting with a “Special Section” on “sublimation,” defined in chemical terms. The editors have selected work that considers the “questions of expansion, collision, and revelation” — categories of inquiry and exploration as rich and provocative for the arts as they are for the sciences. And the work here is indeed rich and provocative. Continue reading “Hayden’s Ferry Review – Spring/Summer 2003”

Fun. Funky. Wild. Weird. Probably is best to read this at midnight. If it’s not necessarily the most reliable guide to life, it’s certainly an entertaining experience. Continue reading “Midnight Mind Magazine – 2003”

“There’s only so much of anything you want to know,” concludes Calvin Trillin in “Comments from a Modest Man,” a thoughtful and entertaining interview conducted by Jonathan D’Amore. That sums up the whole of this very worthwhile issue of The Carolina Quarterly — it’s modest, but self assured, unassuming, but powerful. The fiction is particularly strong. Continue reading “The Carolina Quarterly – Summer 2003”

Celebrations, gatherings, affairs, factions, feasts, salons, unions, orgies, sects, partners, leagues, cabals, defendants, accomplices, holidays, conspirators, partakers — the definition of “parties” for this tenth volume of the journal. TWO LINES is an engrossing theme-based journal of poems in translation, published by the Center for Art in Translation in San Francisco. It’s beautifully and cleverly done and, to its credit, includes only work published for the first time in English in North America. The historical framework is as expansive as the geographical scope, with poems from ancient times to the current moment. Poets include a few writers who may be well known to readers in the U.S. and many who certainly remain unknown here were it not for TWO LINES. All of the poems appear in their original language (Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, French from France and Senegal,  Finnish, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Provençal, Spanish from several Latin American countries, Uzbek, and more) and in translation, preceded by a bio of the poet and a short commentary from the translator about the process of creating the translation. Brief contributors’ notes at the back of the journal provide the translators’ bios. Continue reading “Two Lines – 2003”

Now in its second decade, JOT “…publishes reflections people make on their personal histories and everyday experiences. It is founded on the propositions that every person is a philosopher, expressing one’s thoughts fosters creativity and change, and taking control of life requires people to think about the world and communicate their thoughts to others.” The doors here symbolize place, Chicago (past and present) to be exact, and some of the streets, towns, and geographies people who live there now have left for Chicago. Continue reading “Journal of Ordinary Thought – Summer 2003”

The Kenyon Review offers a special edition, with the theme of culture and place. The annual index appears in the back, offering an overview of an entire year fiction and poetry. Poems focus on place, from Jennifer Grotz’s artistic “Arrival in Rome” to the incredibly detailed “A Flat in Jaipur” by Vinay Dharwadker. The latter poem offers brilliantly vivid images, from the rainbow film of oil on water to banana peels “black and limp as strips of leather” (122). “Japanese Magnolia” by Virgil Suarez paints a delicate picture of the lovely flower, with simplistic double lined stanzas rich with meaning. The poems create scenes from distant countries, heightening the reader’s awareness of the world. Continue reading “The Kenyon Review – Summer/Fall 2003”

Comprised solely of text, Gulf Stream Magazine boasts a highly diverse showing of work. Essays, interviews, poetry and prose fall into myriad styles and forms, making the magazine an eclectic foray into literary possibilities. Continue reading “Gulf Stream – 2003”

The surrealist-naturalist oils of Margaret Wall-Romana set the tone for this journal, the theme of which is “Gardens in the Urban Jungle.” Grouped into sections according to which editor selected them, the works represent a broad interpretation of the seemingly-simple motif—from straightforward botanical sketches to Yiddish verse printed in both English and Hebrew. Continue reading “Five Fingers Review – 2002”

This eclectic and entertaining collection of full-color art work, poetry, short fiction and memoir provides space for highly ironic voices to mingle with the highly sincere. The eccentrically goofy tale of cons gone wrong, “That Kind of Nonsense” by Patrick Tobin, was a highlight, as were the poetry translations, including Robert Pinsky’s translation of Anna Akhmatova’s poem “The Summer Garden” and Taylor Stoehr’s translation of Li Po’s “Fighting South of the Wall.” Another short story, “Heathens,” by Alden Jones, describes the complicated relationships between a teacher, one of her young female students, and a church group teen on a mission trip in Costa Rica. The fascinating (and weirdly beautiful) photographs of decaying books by Rosamond Purcell lend irony to the reading experience. Continue reading “AGNI – Number 58”

This journal out of Texas presents poetry, art work, photography, and reviews in a slim, perfectly bound package with good production values. The appealing poetry within captures a cross-section of American writing that balances heart and art; these works are beautiful in and of themselves but also strive to mean something. For instance, the poem “On Forgetting” by Megan Snyder-Camp plays on well-known proverbs to display a deeper truth about motherhood, as in the following: Continue reading “Borderlands – Spring/Summer 2003”

The thirtieth anniversary edition of BWR starts out strong with “Mother of Pearl Clouds,” a poem by Larissa Szporluk that ends with a line articulating what is possibly the impetus of all art: “let’s not let them / think that we’re just passing.” And it just gets better from there, offering fiction, nonfiction, interviews and a chapbook, all of which are smart and enjoyable. Continue reading “Black Warrior Review – Fall/Winter 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).  Continue reading “William & Mary Review – 2003”

An absolutely sensational cover on this terrific Canadian journal — “Avalok,” a painting by Chris Woods creates a “clash of perspectives” with an astoundingly life-like image of a server / goddess at McDonald’s with her sacred offerings of chicken nuggets / croquettes and cookies / biscuits (bilingual fast food in Canada, of course!). What’s inside is just as exciting. More than three dozen poems, most the work of poets with strong, quirky, original voices, four equally original stories, a personal essay, and several thoughtful reviews of books from noteworthy indie presses. It’s not hard to see why many of the writers published in Event rake in the big Canadian literary awards. Every piece here is truly an event. Poetry by Canadian writers Andy Stubbs and Sue Wheeler and by Californian John Randolph Carter is particularly striking, though all of the poetry in this issue is worth savoring; a story by Edward Maitano of New York could restore a cynic’s faith in the fate of short fiction. The volume opens with the marvelous translation by Jeffrey Angles of the work of widely published Japanese poet Keiz? Aizawa, a fitting invitation to the work that follows in this very memorable issue. Here is an excerpt: Continue reading “Event – 2003”

Editors Alexandra van de Kamp (U.S.) and Alberto Domínguez  (Spain), two of five co-editors between Madrid and New York, tell us this bilingual journal “attempts to demarcate an open, lyrical territory in which surprising relationships and uncanny connections may occur among different worlds and points of views.” The work here does, indeed, reach beyond the mere distance between Manhattan and Madrid, offering an eclectic mix that is surprising and pleasing to find between one set of covers, from José  Saramago’s speech to the World Social Forum in Brazil in 2002 “From Justice to Democracy by Way of Our Bells,” to Sarah Kennedy’s quiet, painterly poem “Morning, with Tea.” Continue reading “Terra Incognita – 2002/2003”

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:” Continue reading “Indiana Review – Winter 2003”

Don’t let the unapologetic academic tone of the Hudson Review scare you off. The long essays, which take up the bulk of the journal and at first may seem daunting, are fascinating, particularly the essay on Darwinism in the Humanities by Harold Fromm and another on Madame Pompadour by Tess Lewis. Continue reading “The Hudson Review – Summer 2003”

As you would expect, the “Editor’s Prize Issue” of the Missouri Review features the editor’s prize winners of both the fiction and essay contests and the Larry Levis poetry prize winner in addition to a selection of other fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews. Continue reading “The Missouri Review – 2003”

With its introspective and lyrical qualities, the writing in Bellingham Review invokes the brief northern daylight and drizzly afternoons of the little bayside town, just south of the British Columbian border, which is its namesake. But don’t misunderstand: this unassumingly slender journal (which must be one of the country’s most beautifully designed) is neither slack nor unadventurous; its pages contain all the great weight and mass of true literature. While the 22 poems tend to induce a mellow and reflective state of mind, they are never staid, never complacent, and are nearly always—whether on a grand or quotidian scale—breathtaking. Continue reading “The Bellingham Review – Summer/Fall 2003”

Though this is the summer issue of Washington Square, its fiction and poetry is pervaded by cool autumnal temperatures. The six artful stories here, while engaging the reader in the indefinable dramas of urban singles or the troubled lives of the patrons in an Amsterdam pub, tend to maintain an impassivity that is eerily uniform. For the most part, these characters seem to have mastered an air of indifference toward their world. Continue reading “Washington Square – 2003”

Hanging Loose, a lovely and inventive poetry and fiction journal out of Brooklyn, may very well be the source to consult for contemporary poems of the most living kind. Continue reading “Hanging Loose – 2003”

This slim journal out of Berea College, Kentucky, lives up to its name, with an intriguing showcase of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, reviews, and photographs by regional writers and artists. Continue reading “Appalachian Heritage – Spring 2003”

Ten stories, a novella, an interview, three poems, and a series of “Afterthoughts” by the journal’s contributors comprise what Orchid’s editors describe, with accuracy, as “rare fiction by talented writers.” Featured writer Maura Stanton (a story and all of the poems) and interview subject Valerie Miner are probably the best known writers in the issue, but several others do certainly deserve our attention, most notably Cindy Dale, whose story “Do Not Do the Arithmetic” represents a brilliant effort. Continue reading “Orchid – 2003”

The range of experience represented in this annual publication is of particular interest — poets and fiction writers as sophisticated or widely published as Denise Duhamel, Peter Johnson, William Greenway, Antler, and Mark Brazaitis (among others) alongside newcomers Thomas Graves and Audrey Doire. With more than two dozen poems and a half dozen stories, there is much to contemplate and appreciate here. Continue reading “Bryant Literary Review – 2003”

Exquisite engravings from Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam by German naturalist and artist Maria Silbylla Merian (1647-1717) are reproduced on the cover and also inside this issue. Merian’s observations are said to have “revolutionized both botany and zoology,” and it is evident from the specimens presented here why this is so. Continue reading “Feminist Studies – 2003”

New publisher and editor Peter Anderson has saved the day! Long-time publishers Jack and Marcia Barstow retired last year, offering the magazine at no cost to anyone who would carry on the tradition of “personal reflective writing.” Anderson has moved the operation to Crestone, Colorado where, if this first issue in the journal’s twenty-eighth year is any indication, Pilgrimage will continue to delight and inspire us. According to Anderson, Pilgrimage serves an “eclectic fellowship of readers, writers, poets, naturalists, activists, contemplatives, seekers, adventurers, and other kindred spirits…” On encountering the moving and thoughtful writing here, one certainly wants to be belong to this “widespread community.” About half the pieces in this issue are reprinted from other publications, but many are from independent presses or sources with which readers may not be familiar. Continue reading “Pilgrimage – 2003”

Okay, full disclosure: I will love any magazine that includes any work by Paul Maliszewski, fiction writer. I cannot help it. In the world of small literary magazines, most of us have authors for whom we’ll shell out anything to get the latest—a Dean Young or Bob Hicok or Olena Kalytiak Davis Poem, a Paul Maliszewski or Thomas de Zengotita or Aimee Bender story. So I’m biased toward this particular Gettysburg Review from the start because of Mr. Maliszewski and his story, which, like nearly all his other published work, is fun, funny, strange and beautiful. Continue reading “The Gettysburg Review – Summer 2003”

For all the hoopla and sage editorial paragraphs regarding work grounded in location and place on the submission pages of many, many journals, few magazines can come close to the South Dakota Review’s incredibly grounded, sure, located/locatable collection in this, their 40th anniversary issue. As E.I. Pruitt writes to begin his poem “Corn”: “You can’t live in this part of the world for long / without developing a personal relationship with corn.” Continue reading “South Dakota Review – Spring/Summer 2003”