Eclipse – Fall 2005

Boasting 10-15% student work per issue, Eclipse, published by Glendale Community College, is the only nationally distributed literary journal that continues to publish students alongside authors of international prominence. Boasting 10-15% student work per issue, Eclipse, published by Glendale Community College, is the only nationally distributed literary journal that continues to publish students alongside authors of international prominence. As any freelancer or writing student knows, having your work published alongside Walter Cummins or Rick Moody is a reassuring nod to the quality of your work, but for readers unconcerned with such things, rest assured: student work is indistinguishable from that of the pros; the only sign of who’s who are the contributors notes. At 201 pages, this issue, wrapped in a simple, matted cover, contains 11 short stories and 70 poems. The fiction all runs short, bitingly concise, ranging from urban to rural, voice-driven to traditional. Two highlights: Richard Lange’s “My Inheritance,” about kid whose desire for normalcy goes up in flames in the chaparral of his hippie family’s California home; George Rabasa’s “Feast,” a rollicking character-driven glimpse at the way a book-obsessed, Marx-loving, transient cross-dresser’s mental illness has disrupted his family and ruined Thanksgiving dinner. Packed with imaginative details, there’s enough family drama in Rabasa’s story to fill a novel, and its strangeness alone makes Eclipse worth tracking down. The poetry stands out as well: from the fun pop culture take of Ryan G. Van Cleave’s “Five Failed Movie Projects Starring Britney Spears” to the emotional refinement of students Katherine Tedrow and Cynthie Cuno. Clint McCown’s poem, “Boring Sunset West of Fort Stockton, After a Storm,” is a snare of evocative description and pinprick emotion: “Back home, where truth nails its joke / to both sides of the door, / the hardest thing to throw away / is the garbage can. / Ideals are ladders built to fall from, / and every crack in the pavement / sprouts fire ants and weeds.” Student versus professional, community college versus university, Eclipse proves that the only thing that matters for a reader is the work.