Third Coast – Spring 2006

One of the steadiest journals of the past few years, Third Coast offers another set of quality poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction. If the consistency of Third Coast has become a bit expected, the work inside is anything but. One of Third Coast’s preoccupations, the natural world, is always viewed through an unfamiliar lens.

One of the steadiest journals of the past few years, Third Coast offers another set of quality poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction. If the consistency of Third Coast has become a bit expected, the work inside is anything but. One of Third Coast’s preoccupations, the natural world, is always viewed through an unfamiliar lens. Matt Miller’s poem “Hierarchy of Paradise” begins with the startling panorama, “Far north the mortar of gutted cotton / mills, up a river’s long dark mane.” Mike Dockins transforms one of literature’s most trusted markers of place and season, the cicada, into something more dangerous, “Here is their sinister crescendo now— / their voices thrumming with chlorophyll, / with a staccato ill will.” Fiction standouts include Jean Hanson’s “The Caribe Club,” fiction award winner Roger Hart’s “Fireflies,” and M. Lynx Qualey’s “Without Fingerprints.” Christine Caya’s “Night Vision” breathes life into what could be a tired horror story—a man and woman receive an old Vermont country house in their grandmother’s will, there may or may not be people living in the basement that they need to care for as well—by contrasting it with clearly described reality, such as the process of getting used to a new home: “You bump into furniture, round corners too quickly clipping elbows and shoulders on doorframes, and the flat screen television looks ridiculous below a rack of deer antlers.” The end result is an affecting, entertaining piece that moves beyond what is printed on the page. The same could be said for much of this issue.
[www.wmich.edu/~thirdcst/]