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Quarterly West – Fall/Winter 2006/2007

Number 30

Fall/Winter 2006/2007

Rachel Yoder

The 30th Anniversary Issue of Quarterly West is, from cover to cover, consistently and astonishingly good. This issue features AWP Intro Award Winners in fiction and poetry, and the Writers@Work Fellowship Award Winners in nonfiction and poetry. It opens with two stories that examine moments of grace: Steve Almond’s short-short “Phoenix” in which a john is redeemed by a thieving hooker, and Quan Berry’s story “Daily at the Gate of the Temple Which is Called Beautiful,” which, with just its title, promises to deliver us to a hallowed place, perhaps even to offer a moment of transcendence. I tried to decide what other of the six remaining stories to mention in this review, and could only come to this: you should read them all. The Writers at Work award-winning nonfiction piece, “16 Doors” by Brenda Sieczkowski, is structured in 16 numbered segments, each a door into the author’s memory and dreams, traveling from ancient China to modern-day Vermont, examining everything from family genealogy to cell structure.

The 30th Anniversary Issue of Quarterly West is, from cover to cover, consistently and astonishingly good. This issue features AWP Intro Award Winners in fiction and poetry, and the Writers@Work Fellowship Award Winners in nonfiction and poetry. It opens with two stories that examine moments of grace: Steve Almond’s short-short “Phoenix” in which a john is redeemed by a thieving hooker, and Quan Berry’s story “Daily at the Gate of the Temple Which is Called Beautiful,” which, with just its title, promises to deliver us to a hallowed place, perhaps even to offer a moment of transcendence. I tried to decide what other of the six remaining stories to mention in this review, and could only come to this: you should read them all. The Writers at Work award-winning nonfiction piece, “16 Doors” by Brenda Sieczkowski, is structured in 16 numbered segments, each a door into the author’s memory and dreams, traveling from ancient China to modern-day Vermont, examining everything from family genealogy to cell structure.

QW also features a satisfying mixture of poetry, with two particularly engaging prose poems by Dave Snyder: “Pica: On Happiness” and “Hexagon: On Truth.” Snyder is the Writers@Work winner in poetry and for good reason; these poems are interesting and original, moving like Rubik’s Cubes with their shifting ideas and images that click into multiple patterns as they examine birds and bees, a man who eats airplanes, robots who polish glass, and intelligence itself – both natural and artificial. Tracy K. Smith’s skittish poem “Nocturne: Andalusian Dog,” poses the question, “Isn’t there anything / You’ve lived wanting / Like a dream that won’t // Resolve?” And this issue of QW answers her question, 48 different and dazzling ways.
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