Literary Magazine Review

The first literary journal that caught my eye in the lower section of the ODY library, hands down, was the Southern Review (autumn 2009 edition), which is published quarterly at Louisiana State University. The journal features short stories, as well as a small section of essays and visual arts, in addition to poetry, but it was without a doubt the verse that I was most enraptured by. The journal has a very interesting cover, which immediately inspires onlookers to wonder about the reasoning behind it, if any happen to exist. It portrays a small toy vehicle atop a colorful package, set in front of a backdrop of black polka dots. The illustration is so random, it immediately catches attention, and I’d bet it is for that reason alone that I first picked the literary magazine up in the first place. Although the edition I read through did not appear like it would be too costly for the average individual to purchase, after looking around inside the pages, I found the subscription prices for individual patrons to be even cheaper than I originally suspected. A one-year subscription for the Southern Review is 40 dollars (60 dollars for two years, and 90 for three). In addition, single copies only cost twelve dollars a piece – much cheaper than the average paperback at Borders. Anybody interested in checking it out can also found some samples online at http://www.lsu.edu/thesouthernreview/. It became clear after reading the autumn 2009 copy of the Southern Review that the statement the magazine’s website makes about its requirements for accepted submissions are true. It tend to stay clear of most experimental writing, and instead sticks to publishing poetry and other literature that has a clear purpose, and one which requires very little guesswork on the part of the reader. I couldn’t help but smile a little after reading that statement, as I personally tend to enjoy this kind of poetry more as opposed to modern poetry from which meaning is sometimes had to glean. To me, modern poetry can sometimes take on the same persona of the splatter paintings that are all too popular today – they are nice to look at (or, in this case, read), but it doesn’t always appear that much effort is put into their crafting. Although I’m sure there are tons of holes in that assertion, it is a bias of mine, and it was comforting to know that I’m not the only one in the literary world (or at its fringes) that shares that opinion. One of my absolute favorite poems in the Southern Review is entitled “Blaze.” The poem, written by Bruce Bond describes the speaker’s feelings after his home was almost burned to the ground, and the consequent reality check he received concerning the true implications of “ownership.” I like this piece not only because of its seriousness of subject matter, but for its absolutely incredibly imagery. One of my favorite scenes is described as follows:

“God know s all that wrinkled in the fire
that night my house burned down
what it was I felt beneath the tower
of light, there’s where it crowned
everything I owned or thought I owned.
I recall the murmur
and awe of other kids who left their homes
to see the brilliant flutter
of sky, as if it were God’s sword returned
To take back what he gave”


What a powerful scene the above description creates in one’s mind, and what an amazing begging to a poem! It is a description of this nature that I can only hope to someday write, and, that being said, I would be honored to become published in the Southern Review. In some ways, certain aspects of the writing within this edition reminded me of Kevin’s style, at least in their elusive nature.

The second literary magazine I decided to take a look at is called the Seneca Review. I’m sad to say I was not quite as impressed with the selection of poetry I found in this edition. I’m guessing my hesitancy with embracing the material I found within the magazine is due to the fact that it ignores the standard rules regarding line breaks, which, as far as I’ve heard, signify an important difference between verse and prose. The best example I can give of this is found within the poem “The Laurel Crown”, by Dan Beachy-Quick. This poem, by introducing a new lens through which to view Greek Mythology, describes certain anecdotes not in stanzas, but in what appears to be plain paragraphs, only occasionally intercepted by traditional poetic verse. The use of language in the poem itself is actually quite charming, describing Greek heroes like Apollo and their love affairs in way I have never before thought of, and thus making them new. I am just not used to such an abrupt change in writing style, and would guess that such experimentation is an acquired taste, but one that can indeed come to be appreciated. Anyone interested in checking out the Seneca Review online can go to
http://www.hws.edu/academics/SenecaReview/.