Hey, I hope everyone had a great weekend. I got to go back to my hometown and snowboard at my local mountain, although I did have to work there. But it was fun and sunny so I hope the weather was nice here too! I couldn’t sleep one night so I decided to pull out one of my notebooks and start writing a few poems. I think I wrote about 4 or 5 poems that night. Wow that is the first time I have done that on a Friday or Saturday night. Well while down there I got a hold of some music from a friend that I had never had before. Some big pun, or big punisher, I’ve had a hard time finding him because I cant really buy cds or itunes songs and nobody seems to have him. But alas I am victorious, his style of rhyming is awesome is beginning to influence me because of its uniqueness. Also im excited to work on these books or print projects were doin. I think they’ll be really fun and I have a few ideas floating around of what I want to do for some graphics on them. awesome
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
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/.
“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/.
Literary Journal Review!
The Poetry Foundation is an independent literary organization that publishes Poetry magazine. As the website states, “it exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.” This online literary magazine has multiple features and links to help broaden the reader’s experience and expand his/her network with the poetry world via the Internet. The Poetry Foundation website offers a history of the independent foundation and publisher, and the authors showcased in current or past issues. The literary journal blends art, scholarly articles, history, and postings of poetry events to entice visitors to subscribe to the monthly magazine. The foundation’s website also includes links to different audio links and podcasts so readers can listen to a poet’s reading of his/her poem. There are links to many different poetry books, included the month’s “featured” books. The Poetry Foundation works with small press publishers and advertises books related to the poetry genre/theme of each individual magazine issue. Any person accessing the website can read the current February 2010 issue, and upon clicking the “current issue” link, the poet’s names, and a randomly selected poem (featured in the issue) pops up. Readers are able to access the newly published poetry, and submit his/her own pieces to the magazine. All the information for editors, commentators, and submission pages are easily accessible. Interestingly, a link brings readers to different articles related to poetry in the media. For example, the latest issue of the magazine includes a link to an article featuring the American Idol judge, Simon Cowell, and his collaboration of creating a song inspired by the poem entitled “Footsteps”. If a reader is looking for the ultimate experience of reading contemporary poet’s works with numerous resources to art, events, media, and scholarly articles The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine is the reader’s best source to browse and explore.
"Mudlark: An Electronic Journal of Poetry & Poetics" is a wonderfully easy-to-use website that posts “posters” of artists’ works within each issue. The latest poster, “No. 85 2010”, features fives poems from Isis Leaves Idaho by Judy Huddleston, a contemporary prose poet. Huddleston’s poems all connect to tell a sort of story or vignette into the life of a woman with a lover and an unwanted pregnancy. Mudlark does an excellent job of creating an “easy on the eyes” webpage and publication, which compliments the intriguing work being showcased within each issue. I believe Mudlark strives to highlight each poet in the issues they release, since there is usually only the work of one poet in each issue. If you are looking for individual displays of a specific poet’s work, check of Mudlark, you’ll find wonderfully talented artists receiving the individual recognition they deserve.
"Mudlark: An Electronic Journal of Poetry & Poetics" is a wonderfully easy-to-use website that posts “posters” of artists’ works within each issue. The latest poster, “No. 85 2010”, features fives poems from Isis Leaves Idaho by Judy Huddleston, a contemporary prose poet. Huddleston’s poems all connect to tell a sort of story or vignette into the life of a woman with a lover and an unwanted pregnancy. Mudlark does an excellent job of creating an “easy on the eyes” webpage and publication, which compliments the intriguing work being showcased within each issue. I believe Mudlark strives to highlight each poet in the issues they release, since there is usually only the work of one poet in each issue. If you are looking for individual displays of a specific poet’s work, check of Mudlark, you’ll find wonderfully talented artists receiving the individual recognition they deserve.
Literary review assignment
For my assignment, I looked at the Exquisite Corpse Journal. I looked at this one because I found the name really appealing and liked the cover of the magazine. This magazine is published by a group of people but the editor's name is Andrei Codrescu who is a poet and a novelist. There's another poet named Dewitt Brinson and a web developer, poet and etc., Plamen Arnaudov. This issue is the second edition of the magazine, which is why I'm not sure of when it started because in the title/ headline it says it's the date of today and says it was established in '83. So, I think this is both an internet website and a magazine. I think this magazine is based offline, but there are only two printed issues. I think they just started printing copies and they might be doing it once every year. I think the piece itself is well put together. They have colored pictures, poems, artwork, interviews, and so much more. The cover page was very appealing to me and looks like it would have cost a lot to print. There is a picture of an old man sitting on a chair, near a refrigerator, saying "well, hell". I thought this was kind of funny, which is why I continued to read this one. The poetry has its own button in which you press to read all of them. I don’t know if the ones I read were from all the same magazine or just poems that were collected at the time. The poems with in the journal are very diverse. I think the ones that appeal to me most are the conversational poems in which it says like the poet is talking to you or another person who isn’t someone you know. Well, so far all the poems I’ve read seem to be about old age or death. I don’t know if this is a theme, but it would go well with the title of the magazine. In this magazine, I think I like the poet Pat Nolan. He’s structure seems very free flowing and he’s stanza don’t really make sense, but flow anyway he wants them to flow. I like his poem Lost and Found, well the beginning, because of the repetition that he uses within the poem. He also has some other poems on the site that I thought were quite interesting, but I don’t know if I liked them as much as I liked this one. Well, I don’t really enjoy the poems in a different language because I’m not able to read them, but I don’t really think there are poems that I don’t like. I mean, I think some of them are too long for what they are trying to accomplish and maybe a little too wordy for me. Compared to the drunken boat, I think this one is a lot better. The Drunken Boat was very boring to me because of the way it was set up. I mean, they had the poets, the writers of non-fiction and fiction, but I couldn’t access any of their material. The only thing I did like about them is the art work and statements/ history they had for the writers. There isn’t really a cover page you can see and I don’t really know what’s going on with it. I think the Exqusitite Corpse is just more accessible which is why I’d look it up online again. For as for an actually copy of the magazine, I don’t know which one would be better.
scooters, vacation, fall
The two literary journals I decided to look at are the American Poetry Review and the Antioch Review.
The American Poetry Review is a bimonthly journal, that is published by World Poetry, Inc., which is a non-profit corporation. It is based out of Philadelphia and its website is www.aprweb.org, which is actually a great website to navigate around, you have the option of seeing a lot of poetry in there you should check it out. Anyway, the journal is printed to look more like a poetry periodical on newspaper quality paper, and not at all bound in book form, which is almost a deterrent at first because I doubted how credible this journal would be. But it doesn't seem like there's an overwhelmingly large amount of journals out there with just poetry, so I figured I'd have to give it a look. Many of the authors to this journal submit multiple poems. Only a few (one maybe two) of the poems are really experimental with the format and shape of the poems, giving it an almost conventional look to the journal as you leaf through it before you actually read any of the poems, but in reading some of the poetry you can definitely see that this is new contemporary poetry. There are a lot of insets and blurbs from the authors on the practice of writing itself, which makes reading this journal seem a lot more personal and makes the reader want to go experiment themselves rather than solely appreciating the writing. Because there were so many poems it was hard for me to pick out a favorite, it was also hard for me to focus on just one poem because I knew there were so many more and my mind kept flitting back and forth between pages and poems. Just like a newspaper, there are adds scattered all over the place in this journal advertising different MFA programs, spreading the word about poetry contests, and displaying books that the reader should explore.
The Antioch Review, unlike the American Poetry Review is a literary journal that is not solely about poetry. It is one of the oldest and most well established journals for writing, and features both contemporary and older writers within its pages. It is published quarterly by Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and its website is antiochreview.org (no www. part in the beginning, that threw me for a little spin there). The book itself is very cleanly printed and the material inside is separated into six categories: Essays, Poetry, Fiction, France, From Our Archives, and Et Cetera. I didn't really know what to think about the section "France"... but basically it's a whole section in the journal dedicated to literature about France or the French culture. Go figure... I'm not sure if that section is present in every issue or what, but it was funny to me that the "France" section has more pages filled than the Poetry section. However, I really enjoyed all of the poetry in this journal, more so than some of the poetry I read in the American Poetry Review. Maybe it's because they had to be more selective of the poetry they published. I especially liked one poem entitled "Bunny Hole", with text that was separated in a way to form the image of a bunny hole itself with the words. The types of poetry in this short section seemed to hit all the bases. I feel like as a starting out poet you'd have more luck submitting to the American Poetry Review. I would definitely pick up another copy of both issues!
The American Poetry Review is a bimonthly journal, that is published by World Poetry, Inc., which is a non-profit corporation. It is based out of Philadelphia and its website is www.aprweb.org, which is actually a great website to navigate around, you have the option of seeing a lot of poetry in there you should check it out. Anyway, the journal is printed to look more like a poetry periodical on newspaper quality paper, and not at all bound in book form, which is almost a deterrent at first because I doubted how credible this journal would be. But it doesn't seem like there's an overwhelmingly large amount of journals out there with just poetry, so I figured I'd have to give it a look. Many of the authors to this journal submit multiple poems. Only a few (one maybe two) of the poems are really experimental with the format and shape of the poems, giving it an almost conventional look to the journal as you leaf through it before you actually read any of the poems, but in reading some of the poetry you can definitely see that this is new contemporary poetry. There are a lot of insets and blurbs from the authors on the practice of writing itself, which makes reading this journal seem a lot more personal and makes the reader want to go experiment themselves rather than solely appreciating the writing. Because there were so many poems it was hard for me to pick out a favorite, it was also hard for me to focus on just one poem because I knew there were so many more and my mind kept flitting back and forth between pages and poems. Just like a newspaper, there are adds scattered all over the place in this journal advertising different MFA programs, spreading the word about poetry contests, and displaying books that the reader should explore.
The Antioch Review, unlike the American Poetry Review is a literary journal that is not solely about poetry. It is one of the oldest and most well established journals for writing, and features both contemporary and older writers within its pages. It is published quarterly by Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and its website is antiochreview.org (no www. part in the beginning, that threw me for a little spin there). The book itself is very cleanly printed and the material inside is separated into six categories: Essays, Poetry, Fiction, France, From Our Archives, and Et Cetera. I didn't really know what to think about the section "France"... but basically it's a whole section in the journal dedicated to literature about France or the French culture. Go figure... I'm not sure if that section is present in every issue or what, but it was funny to me that the "France" section has more pages filled than the Poetry section. However, I really enjoyed all of the poetry in this journal, more so than some of the poetry I read in the American Poetry Review. Maybe it's because they had to be more selective of the poetry they published. I especially liked one poem entitled "Bunny Hole", with text that was separated in a way to form the image of a bunny hole itself with the words. The types of poetry in this short section seemed to hit all the bases. I feel like as a starting out poet you'd have more luck submitting to the American Poetry Review. I would definitely pick up another copy of both issues!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Literary Review Assignment
I choose the winter 2009 issue of Granta: The Magazine of New Writing. It is published by a press called LegoPrint located in Italy. It is published four times a year, March, June, September, and December. Granta is a mixed genre literary magazine that publishes poems, memoirs, short stories, photography and more. It was founded in 1889 by students at Cambridge University as an outlet for their literary experiments and political opinions. Today Granta publishes well known authors whose writing attempts to tackle and make sense of the major issues in human society. It’s website is www.granta.com. Granta is a sizable literary magazine, the one I looked at being over 300 hundred pages with many color photographs and advertisements. This particular issue has a completely black and white cover, though the cover art work changes for every issue. It is bound with a soft-cover and feels like a substantial paper-back. It does not contain a literary or political mission, though its editors do remark on the website that selections are chosen based upon the magazine’s belief in the power and urgency of the story, and the story’s fantastic ability to describe, illuminate and make real some of the world’s most important issues of the day. Granta is intended for the publication of the more experienced author, and one whose work has a serious purpose and whose general intent is to draw attention to important issues in our society. Some of the authors who have been published in Granta include Raymond Carver, Ian McEwan, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, George Steiner, Graham Swift, and Tobias Wolff. One essay in particular that I read was called What I Think When I Think About Robots by Steven Hall, and though it wasn’t a poem it reminded me of Jon’s poem about the astronaut.
The second journal I choose to review was the winter 2010 edition of The Fiddlehead: Atlantic Canada’s International Literary Journal. It is published four times a year by the University of New Brunswick. It publishes short stories, poems, and personal essays and is Canada’s longest living literary journal, published for over 65 years. The Fiddlehead publishes several new poets and fiction authors every year who enter into their Fiddlehead Contest. Their literary mission is to publish good writing that contains freshness and surprise. There was a range of poems included in the journal and the majority of the pieces included in this issue were poems. Many of the poems focused upon nature or a connection with the outdoors, though there were a variety of other subjects included as well. The Fiddlehead seems to be a place to publish for less established writers than Granta, though they said their acceptance rate is around 2% of all submissions.
The second journal I choose to review was the winter 2010 edition of The Fiddlehead: Atlantic Canada’s International Literary Journal. It is published four times a year by the University of New Brunswick. It publishes short stories, poems, and personal essays and is Canada’s longest living literary journal, published for over 65 years. The Fiddlehead publishes several new poets and fiction authors every year who enter into their Fiddlehead Contest. Their literary mission is to publish good writing that contains freshness and surprise. There was a range of poems included in the journal and the majority of the pieces included in this issue were poems. Many of the poems focused upon nature or a connection with the outdoors, though there were a variety of other subjects included as well. The Fiddlehead seems to be a place to publish for less established writers than Granta, though they said their acceptance rate is around 2% of all submissions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)