Land-Grant College Review – 2003
2003
Weston Cutter
Brand new, all fiction (plus one interview), advertisement free and gorgeous, the Land-Grant College Review is one of best literary magazines since McSweeney’s. The contributors, by and large, are the interesting mid-list authors we don’t find enough on the NYTimes bestseller list—Ron Carlson, Stephen Dixon, Aimee Bender, Robert Olmstead. The artwork by Joy Kolitsky is stunning, from the cover to the two-color title pages preceding each story. There’s an interview with Thisbe Nissen that alone is worth the issue price, even if you’ve no familiarity with her award winning collection of stories or novel or stolen recipe book.
Brand new, all fiction (plus one interview), advertisement free and gorgeous, the Land-Grant College Review is one of best literary magazines since McSweeney’s. The contributors, by and large, are the interesting mid-list authors we don’t find enough on the NYTimes bestseller list—Ron Carlson, Stephen Dixon, Aimee Bender, Robert Olmstead. The artwork by Joy Kolitsky is stunning, from the cover to the two-color title pages preceding each story. There’s an interview with Thisbe Nissen that alone is worth the issue price, even if you’ve no familiarity with her award winning collection of stories or novel or stolen recipe book.
The stories are almost entirely slightly off, or odd, just askance enough to make them unclassifiable as realist fiction. Dixon’s page-long paragraphical style from I. (McSweeney’s Press, 2002) is continued in a chapter from 2, a work-in-progress. Sara Gran’s “Best Friends” is sickly funny and indicting of anyone who’s had a friend they’ve wished would quit complaining. Aimee Bender’s usual bizarre hilarity is everywhere balanced, in the six pages of her “I Will Pick Out Your Ribs (From My Teeth)” with what seems a growing darkness in her recent stories.
This first issue of Land-Grant College Review is bold and fun, and the only small detraction anyone could really claim is that of the seventeen featured artists, five have an editorial affiliation with the journal. Despite being a little imbalanced, this is certainly forgivable considering all the work offered herein. [Land-Grant College Review, PO Box 1164, New York, NY, 10159. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $12.00. www.land-grantcollegereview.com/index.php] – WC
