Hayden’s Ferry Review – Fall/Winter 2004-05

From among the sage brush and juniper (not to mention the sprawling megalopolis that is the greater Phoenix area) Hayden’s Ferry Review continues to prove that dedication to an editorial vision pays off.

From among the sage brush and juniper (not to mention the sprawling megalopolis that is the greater Phoenix area) Hayden’s Ferry Review continues to prove that dedication to an editorial vision pays off. Its editors may change yearly, but its commitment to “the artistic and cultural conversations between the work of established and emerging artists” does not. Issue 35 continues that tradition with work from both new and old voices. In the “new” category is a fine first publication by short-story writer Anne Clifford about a middle-aged woman whose sexual longing for her 20-something nephew seems symptomatic of her inability to relate to her too-often married sister. Not to be missed either is “Int. Hotel Room-Day” a stunningly good piece of fiction in which Chris Gavaler manages to use a porn film to poignantly reveal silences in a marriage (honestly, you have to read this!). The other great thing about this issue, besides all of the super poetry and artwork I haven’t room to mention specifically, is the special section on metafiction. The editors have collected nine meta-works here, all of them worth reading (though I particularly enjoyed Michael Hettic’s “Sky Full of White Birds”). The section ends with the pièce de résistance: an interview with William H. Gass. “Prose that does not sing is not alive” Gass admonishes; it’s a reminder Hayden’s Ferry Review does not need.