Georgia State University Review – 2006

This issue of GSU Review showcases the winners and finalists of their 2006 fiction and poetry contests, as well as the art of Len Kovsky on the covers and six full-color pages inside, rounding out this solid collection. Taking first place in fiction was Midge Raymond’s “Forgetting English,” about an American teacher trying to start again in Taiwan. But in a place where “[…] amid the belief that souls are lost and lonely, that they drift through an eternal purgatory, appeased with food, drink, entertainment, gifts […]” she is led inevitably to face her own haunted past and decide what to do with her future. This issue of GSU Review showcases the winners and finalists of their 2006 fiction and poetry contests, as well as the art of Len Kovsky on the covers and six full-color pages inside, rounding out this solid collection. Taking first place in fiction was Midge Raymond’s “Forgetting English,” about an American teacher trying to start again in Taiwan. But in a place where “[…] amid the belief that souls are lost and lonely, that they drift through an eternal purgatory, appeased with food, drink, entertainment, gifts […]” she is led inevitably to face her own haunted past and decide what to do with her future. Stacey Leslie’s story “L.A. Cycle” follows a succession of characters whose lives intertwine physically while their innermost needs and desires remain hidden and frustrated. Be sure to catch the work of other finalists, such as Michael Shiavone, Sharon Hashimoto, Joan Frank, and Randall Norris, moving stories of people finding ways to connect, to deal with the irony of life. The poetry is solid throughout. One example is Todd Boss’s “More So,” where love exceeds the cute, clean ability to be captured in anecdotes and moves beyond the bounds of language, but maybe not without losing something along the way, confirming the insightful ambiguousness of the poem itself. Also filed under ‘Poetry’ is a piece by Ellen LaFlèche entitled “Hansel and Gretel: The Witch’s Side of the Story,” a prose poem that delivers a retelling in one page that is both moving and humane. This is not to discount the other poetry by Allan Peterson, Jane Knechtel, R. Virgil Ellis, Noelle Rydell, Jeannette Barnes, Catherine Carter, and more. I’m looking forward to future issues of this engaging literary magazine. [www.review.gsu.edu]