Vallum – 2004

First, thank god for Medbh McGuckian and her four beautiful poems within this small volume, and is everyone now clear, with each passion season and the crop of literary journals, that Canada is where it’s happening, literary magazine-wise? Should we list? Probably not (click, back on the main page on Literary Mags).

First, thank god for Medbh McGuckian and her four beautiful poems within this small volume, and is everyone now clear, with each passion season and the crop of literary journals, that Canada is where it’s happening, literary magazine-wise? Should we list? Probably not (click, back on the main page on Literary Mags). Way to go Canuks. Specifically though, Vallum: Donato Mancini’s poetry, visual and physical and stunning, is magnificent, and if every magazine had a quota for surprising work we’d all be better off, readers and writers and hopeful folks alike. In a similar vein, Barbara Legowski’s four circus images are startling and remind me in the best way of some of Sarah Moon’s photography. It’s a neat little, essentially, poetry journal – there are five reviews, two essays, and in this issue, a tribute to Peter Redgrove, but the stress falls on the verse, the stanzas, all of which within handle the stress just fine. [Vallum, PO Box 48003, Montreal, Quebec, H2V4S8 Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $5.95. http://www.vallummag.com] – WC