Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine – Number 5

The standout feature of this issue of the hefty annual Red Wheelbarrow, which publishes poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and artwork including comics, is a long (eighteen-page) transcript of De Anza college students interviewing Adrienne Rich, a lively back-and-forth conversation that included discussions of politics, Rich’s poem “An Atlas of the Difficult World,”  feminism, classicism, the problems of globalization, and more. This is a must-read for Rich’s fans, though they probably won’t be that surprised by Rich’s answers. The other thing that immediately stands out about this lit mag is the size and spacing – at least 14 point font, and everything, even the poetry, is double-spaced. Easy on the eyes, perhaps, but a bit disconcerting at first. “Bee-Stealing Season” by Margarita Engle and “Mother as Rope” by Jennifer Perrine were two poems among the many deserving attention in this issue, which also include “Tell Me” by Adrienne Rich and work by Virgil Suarez and Lyn Lifshin. Here are a few lines from “Mother as Rope”:

The standout feature of this issue of the hefty annual Red Wheelbarrow, which publishes poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and artwork including comics, is a long (eighteen-page) transcript of De Anza college students interviewing Adrienne Rich, a lively back-and-forth conversation that included discussions of politics, Rich’s poem “An Atlas of the Difficult World,”  feminism, classicism, the problems of globalization, and more. This is a must-read for Rich’s fans, though they probably won’t be that surprised by Rich’s answers. The other thing that immediately stands out about this lit mag is the size and spacing – at least 14 point font, and everything, even the poetry, is double-spaced. Easy on the eyes, perhaps, but a bit disconcerting at first. “Bee-Stealing Season” by Margarita Engle and “Mother as Rope” by Jennifer Perrine were two poems among the many deserving attention in this issue, which also include “Tell Me” by Adrienne Rich and work by Virgil Suarez and Lyn Lifshin. Here are a few lines from “Mother as Rope”:

…This is the way her lips
looked that day, nooselike, while you twisted
tissues in your hands. All that time,
dusky filaments entwining her lungs,
then the braid of her spine…

[Red Wheelbarrow, De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, CA 95014-5702. E-mail: [email protected].  http://faculty.deanza.fhda.edu/splitterrandolph/stories/storyReader$14] Single issue $10. – JHG