Hayden’s Ferry Review – Spring/Summer 2003

Always satisfying, this issue is intensely exciting with a “Special Section” on “sublimation,” defined in chemical terms. The editors have selected work that considers the “questions of expansion, collision, and revelation” — categories of inquiry and exploration as rich and provocative for the arts as they are for the sciences. And the work here is indeed rich and provocative.

Always satisfying, this issue is intensely exciting with a “Special Section” on “sublimation,” defined in chemical terms. The editors have selected work that considers the “questions of expansion, collision, and revelation” — categories of inquiry and exploration as rich and provocative for the arts as they are for the sciences. And the work here is indeed rich and provocative. The special section features exquisitely crafted writing by poets (Eric Pankey, Heidi Czerwiec Blitch, Anne Shaw, among others) whose reverence for language naturally expands our sense of ourselves and the world, collides with everyday meanings and contexts, and reveals something that moves us to think in a new way, not to mention to consider the power of language itself. Caerwiec Blitch’s work, from “Hiking the Maze,” concludes with questions that seem just right for the theme of sublimation: “…Have I/said the right thing? Is this the right language?” Black and white photographs by Emily Matyas are equally compelling, expressing unusual and captivating interpretations of “sublimation.” The quality of the reproduction of all of the photos in the journal is outstanding. Several fiction “short shorts” and prose poems round out the special section. While the work on the sublimation theme makes this issue of Hayden’s Ferry Review stand out, there is strong work from notable voices throughout, including new poems by Albert Goldbarth and David Wojahn, and interviews with Wojahn and with Michael Cunningham. [Hayden’s Ferry Review, Box 871502, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1502. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $6. www.HaydensFerryReview.org.] – SR