NewPages Blog :: Magazine Reviews

Find literary magazine reviews on the NewPages Blog. These reviews include single literary pieces and an issue of a literary magazine as a whole.

The American Scholar – Winter 2004

This is, in my mind anyway, the most classically high-brow literary-and-arts magazine on the market, though that opinion may only be because when I was in college I was not invited to join the Phi Beta Kappa society, the group that publishes this quarterly. And while I’m certainly a fan of ignoring those who snub you, it’s impossible to keep an antagonist front against this consistently brainy, ever clever, and intensely smart magazine. Two admissions: I’m bound to love anything Sven Birkerts writes, and his essay on Flaubert is, as ever, graceful and superb. I’m also, as of late and right along with most of the rest of the conscientious country, horrifically fascinated by all stories pertaining to farming in the US, particularly stories that detail the literally near-unbelievable industrialization and specialization processes that have taken place since, roughly, Nixon. So Richard Manning’s “Against the Grain,” the lead essay here, is disgustingly enthralling. But there’s plenty beyond that, as well. Richard Lucas’ visual essay “Roma Ineffabile” is ghastly and addictive and, like any good art, asks more questions of the viewer/reader, and acts as a vein in a copper valley. Kay Ryan’s “Nothing Getting Past” is, like all of her poetry, prickly, dense and wise, and Diane McWhorter’s “Talk” is great, great fun. The only bad part? Not enough new, unknown writers in this particular issue. Next time – always next time. – WC Continue reading “The American Scholar – Winter 2004”

Pleiades – 2004

Perhaps I’m just slow, but apparently Missouri, a state I know nearly nothing about, is where good writing, if not comes from, then at least is published. We all know the Missouri Review is the [insert whatever glowing adjective you’d like here] literary magazine in the world, but Pleiades, published in Warrensburg, Missouri, is a close close second. Continue reading “Pleiades – 2004”

Michigan Quarterly Review – Winter 2004

Michigan Quarterly Review always features interesting essays, and this issue is no exception; my favorite was George Watson’s essay, “The Cosmic Comic,” on the life and writing motivations of Douglas Adams. Two new poems by Adrienne Rich appear here as well, and the rest of the (sadly, very few) poems are excellent, including Donovan Hohn’s “Ars Poetica” and Charles Harper Webb’s “My Wife Insists That, On Our First Date, I Told Her I Had Seven Kinds of Hair.” A few lines from that poem: Continue reading “Michigan Quarterly Review – Winter 2004”

Virginia Quarterly Review – Winter 2004

If the heavy theme of this issue, Integrated Education in America, puts you off, the author of its first essay will draw you right back in. Toni Morrison’s memoir on segregation in the American South is characteristically unflinching and beautiful. Equally compelling is a collection of collages by Romare Bearden from the 1960s, which depict, cubistically, the agonies and ironies of the African American condition at that time. A suite of reactionary poems by Kevin Young accompanies them, adding an additional layer of interest. Included, presumably, by virtue of their merit, not their theme, Quan Berry’s poems are an elegant, tightly crafted delight. Continue reading “Virginia Quarterly Review – Winter 2004”

The Threepenny Review – Winter 2004

There is a certain perversity in newspaper-bound journals—after all, how can something as valuable as literature exist in such a vulnerable state, resembling Sunday-edition inserts destined, unread, for the recycling bin. Accustomed to the pretty, diminutive books that populate the same category, I was immediately disarmed by the lackluster appearance of The Threepenny ReviewContinue reading “The Threepenny Review – Winter 2004”

Kitchen Sink – Summer 2003

Containing socio-political commentary, pop culture interest pieces, comics and even recipes, Kitchen Sink—something of a catchall—is aptly named. It’s more zine than litmag, though, and looks the part. Graphically stunning, the entire thing is printed in blue—a harbinger of novelty from the get-go. Right at home in indigo is “Out of Sight,” a poem by Jonathan Loucks that captures fabulously the not-quite-sadness of a man reflecting on the way a passionate relationship has become staider with time. As for the fiction, it has a highly Californian flavor, being full of heart but slightly left-of-center. More enjoyable are the delightful articles, especially “The Price of Parenthood,” which fairly addresses the ambivalence of modern would-be procreators. Another piece, about “why poetry readings suck,” is resonant with candor: Continue reading “Kitchen Sink – Summer 2003”

American Letters & Commentary – 2003

It’s incredibly, incredibly hard to pin down which aspect of this magazine works and sings best. The candy-striped cover with its ‘bubbles’ of text; the feature on “Senses of Humor” (featuring, at her and his best, pieces by Eleanor Wilner and David Rees, among plenty of phenomenal others), John Greenman’s “The Cowboy Poet,” Adam Dant’s mesmerizing art, G.C. Waldrep’s or Linh Dinh’s poetry (and about Waldrep: I mentioned his work from the fall Gettysburg Review without knowing that: (1) He’s in Iowa now, not N.C., and (2) He’s the 2003 winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry – remember that guy named Dean Young? Same award.). It’s a spellbinding read, this latest American Letters and Commentary, which is right in keeping with what this magazine does every time. Continue reading “American Letters & Commentary – 2003”

Prairie Schooner – Winter 2003

The winter issue of Prairie Schooner contains poetry, stories, and reviews, sprinkled with the names of literary stars like R.T. Smith and Alice Ostriker and some new voices as well. Particularly charming were Alice Friman’s imaginings on the biblical character Ruth in “Remembering in Lilac and Heart-Shaped Leaves,” and Annette Sanford’s story, “Spring ’41,” about a young girl whose beloved aunt comes to live with her in a conservative town – bringing an illegitimate baby with her. I also liked Steve Langan’s poem, “Apricots,” a sensual homage to William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say.” Here are a few lines from Langan’s poem: Continue reading “Prairie Schooner – Winter 2003”

Rhino – 2003

This mostly-poetry journal (with a smattering of photos and reviews) out of Evanston, Illinois succeeds in bringing new voices from the poetry world to light. This issue considers the metaphysical questions of spiritual versus human nature, in which speakers deal with their bodies’failures (“What I’m Not Writing,” “How to Continue,” “The Robust Young Man Discusses His Burial”) and with the failures of their faiths (“God is Not Talking,” “Paris Does Not Exist,” “Recidivism”). Here are a few lines from Danna Ephland’s “After Surgery”: Continue reading “Rhino – 2003”

Image – Summer 2003

You don’t have to be a religious scholar to appreciate the essays, short stories, art and poetry found in Image. In fact, many of the individual pieces included would easily fit in “general” literary journals. As a collection, the text explores the relationships between religion (mainly Judeo-Christian), culture and art in contemporary times. This issue offers two enlightening essays on the work of artists George Gittoes and Eric Fischl (artist of last year’s controversial Tumbling Woman, which generated a debate of how artists should represent the horrors of 9/11). Continue reading “Image – Summer 2003”

Other Voices – Fall/Winter 2003

Other Voices is the perfect title for this journal from Chicago, for a provocative sense of voice is exactly the thing one carries away from its pages. Of the eighteen stories featured in the Fall/Winter issue, thirteen are first-person perspectives, and the intimacy of these narratives is so cumulatively bewitching that one has the sense of having dwelt for a time in a chamber of souls. Continue reading “Other Voices – Fall/Winter 2003”

Alaska Quarterly Review – Fall/Winter 2003

This issue commences with a wonderful essay by Jane Hirshfield on the nature of language, “Language Wakes Up in the Morning: A Meander Toward Writing,” which playfully begins by describing a personified language as it goes about its day. Guest poetry editor for this issue, Michael Ryan, chose a variety of poems about loss, from a litany of everyday lost things in a little girl’s life (“My Daughter’s Sadness, a Casual Analysis”), to a mournful meditation on the brief lifespan of a hummingbird (“Anna’s Hummingbird”), to the effects of the death of a loved one (“After Your Death,” “Poem for After Peter Dies”). The art work in this issue, Richard J. Murphy’s series of black and white photographs titled “Cancer Journal,” also chronicles loss in the photo essay that movingly portrays a woman’s struggle and eventual death from breast cancer. The work throughout the issue is full of arresting images and heartbreaking moments, especially “Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction,” the piece by Charles Yu about a young man’s relationship to his mother.  Continue reading “Alaska Quarterly Review – Fall/Winter 2003”

Seneca Review – Fall 2003

Seneca Review continues to showcase stellar poems and lyric essays by both unknown and familiar writers. Lucy Shutz’s poem, “The Philosophers Will Never Love the Poets and the Poets Will Continue to Smoke Cigarettes and Starve Themselves,” is adventurous and playful in style, while still dealing with some of the more serious problems of existence. Continue reading “Seneca Review – Fall 2003”

The American Poetry Review – Jan/Feb 2004

Another disarming newsprint journal (as in: Aha! You may look as if you are reading a perfectly respectable newspaper, but instead you are subversively reading poetry without being ostentatious about it), the quality of the paper belies what lies within. The prose here is always fascinating, featuring interviews with well-known poets (in this case, Christopher Merrill) and critical essays. The poetry contributions usually lean heavily towards translations and prose poems, and this issue is no exception, with a series of poems by Jean Cocteau translated by Charles Guenther, four poems by Constantine Cavafy translated from the Greek by Aliki Barnstone, and some very witty prose poems by Jeffrey Skinner. The inside-joke humor of “Day One,” simultaneously complaining about the egotism of writers who write a poem a day and actually writing a poem about writing a poem a day, is contagious. His two poems exploring theories in physics, “Many Worlds” and “White Dwarf,” juxtapose mundane and extraordinary details effectively. The rest of the poetry, including works by the likes of Tony Hoagland, Chard DeNiord, Robert Bly and Toi Derricotte, is strong and engaging, all worthy of excerpting here if there were only space. Suffice it to say that fans of both poetry and poetics will be satisfied with this issue. Continue reading “The American Poetry Review – Jan/Feb 2004”

Quick Fiction – Fall 2003

Measuring in at 6”x6”, this is a great little journal to tuck in a bag, purse, glovebox, computer bag, under a pillow or wherever you can think to stash it for truly quick reading. Keeping entries at under 500 words, this publication offers a zen approach to reading literature – just as we can remind ourselves to breathe during hectic days, this publication is an accessible reminder to read. Continue reading “Quick Fiction – Fall 2003”

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. Continue reading “Hayden’s Ferry Review – Spring/Summer 2003”

The Carolina Quarterly – Summer 2003

“There’s only so much of anything you want to know,” concludes Calvin Trillin in “Comments from a Modest Man,” a thoughtful and entertaining interview conducted by Jonathan D’Amore. That sums up the whole of this very worthwhile issue of The Carolina Quarterly — it’s modest, but self assured, unassuming, but powerful. The fiction is particularly strong. Continue reading “The Carolina Quarterly – Summer 2003”

Room of One’s Own – 2003

There are many beautiful things to be found within the pages of the magazine that celebrates words as they are written, poems as they are whittled out, and art as it is imagined and incarnated by women. There are stories of love, of love lost, of shame and regret, of redemption and celebration. Poems of all the same themes. And art of still the same, wonderfully rendered, including several paintings by talented artist Heather Horton, with cover feature “Cheltenham Eden.” In the artist bio, Horton says she paints with “recurring themes of isolation, anticipation and solitude.” In looking at the front cover, it is not hard to imagine any of these themes. Continue reading “Room of One’s Own – 2003”

Two Lines – 2003

Celebrations, gatherings, affairs, factions, feasts, salons, unions, orgies, sects, partners, leagues, cabals, defendants, accomplices, holidays, conspirators, partakers — the definition of “parties” for this tenth volume of the journal. TWO LINES is an engrossing theme-based journal of poems in translation, published by the Center for Art in Translation in San Francisco. It’s beautifully and cleverly done and, to its credit, includes only work published for the first time in English in North America. The historical framework is as expansive as the geographical scope, with poems from ancient times to the current moment. Poets include a few writers who may be well known to readers in the U.S. and many who certainly remain unknown here were it not for TWO LINES. All of the poems appear in their original language (Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, French from France and Senegal,  Finnish, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Provençal, Spanish from several Latin American countries, Uzbek, and more) and in translation, preceded by a bio of the poet and a short commentary from the translator about the process of creating the translation. Brief contributors’ notes at the back of the journal provide the translators’ bios. Continue reading “Two Lines – 2003”

Third Coast – Fall 2003

This issue opens with a Q & A of poet Juliana Baggott, who has several poems featured here. Her responses are quick-witted and funny, quite, I imagine, as you’d expect a poet’s to be. When asked why she doesn’t write formal poetry, she responds, “I mistake quatrain for Coltrane, terza rima for tiramisu,” and, while she agrees that “there is desperation in numbers, an attempt to keep account like naming babies in an orphanage hospital,” she admits that she will “forever 1-2-3 a waltz.” Witty indeed, and her poems – beautifully imagined and written. For example, in “The Stolen Poem: My Brother Poem after Levine’s ‘What Work Is’,” she writes, “He won’t admit to rain. Only / A break in the sun to wait out / My brother wait for it to unwind / amid the no-no of children, jazz, Scotch.” Continue reading “Third Coast – Fall 2003”

Journal of Ordinary Thought – Summer 2003

Now in its second decade, JOT “…publishes reflections people make on their personal histories and everyday experiences. It is founded on the propositions that every person is a philosopher, expressing one’s thoughts fosters creativity and change, and taking control of life requires people to think about the world and communicate their thoughts to others.” The doors here symbolize place, Chicago (past and present) to be exact, and some of the streets, towns, and geographies people who live there now have left for Chicago. Continue reading “Journal of Ordinary Thought – Summer 2003”

The Antioch Review – Fall 2003

This issue of the famed Antioch Review is subtitled, “Circuses and Art Museums,” and it does not disappoint on either front. In Cathy Day’s story, “The Last Member of the Boela Tribe,” circus life is explored in all its glory with its underbelly exposed as well. The same can be said for the essays on the state of museums in the world, such as Neil MacGregor’s “A Pentecost in Trafalgar Square” and “Pictures, Tears, Lights, and Seats” by John Walsh. Continue reading “The Antioch Review – Fall 2003”

The Kenyon Review – Summer/Fall 2003

The Kenyon Review offers a special edition, with the theme of culture and place. The annual index appears in the back, offering an overview of an entire year fiction and poetry. Poems focus on place, from Jennifer Grotz’s artistic “Arrival in Rome” to the incredibly detailed “A Flat in Jaipur” by Vinay Dharwadker. The latter poem offers brilliantly vivid images, from the rainbow film of oil on water to banana peels “black and limp as strips of leather” (122). “Japanese Magnolia” by Virgil Suarez paints a delicate picture of the lovely flower, with simplistic double lined stanzas rich with meaning. The poems create scenes from distant countries, heightening the reader’s awareness of the world. Continue reading “The Kenyon Review – Summer/Fall 2003”

Southwest Review – 2003

Oh Sally Bingham and William Wenthe! Oh John DeCaire and Kathryn Ma! Of the 28 authors with work in this journal, the sighing, huge vowel and exclamation could be used on just about any of them. The Southwest Review comes out of Dallas, Texas and while its cover trumpets nothing so much as a mature, almost National Affairs-esque sobriety (the lower half of the cover is a list of the work inside, and maybe it’s just me, but I’d take a cover like Tin House and get my ingredient list from the table of contents), the work within wanders different trails. Continue reading “Southwest Review – 2003”

Blue Collar Review – Autumn 2003

What a find! This is as diverse a collection of writing as I have read in some time (with 42 entries on 60 pages – this is packed!). Anyone who has worked labor or second shift or a thankless-number-not-a-name job will find themselves within these pages. But don’t mistake the content (which is heavy on the poetry) as being all about work/ing. Oh, no –  there’s sensuality, as in Jillian Meyer’s “First Job” where she describes the post-shower relaxation that comes after work, the outdoor air blowing “gently into the warmer darkness behind my knees, / a drying breeze over a landscape not meant for fast travel / in the quiet of a night at home in my skin.” Natural imagery as metaphor roars in Cunningham’s “a hollow thunder” and walks us gently into the wood in Napolin’s “On Sunday.”  Continue reading “Blue Collar Review – Autumn 2003”

Thought Magazine – 2003

If you’re a literary traditionalist or an anal grammar/perfect-proof reader, leave. You’ll hate this publication. For the remaining (more forgiving) folks, let’s talk. The first section is a bit rough. I swear someone lost pages to the Manil Suri (“Death of Vishnu”) interview. But the “Letters to the Editor” start the engine purring. Look at these beginning sentences: “I love the rain / As a schoolgirl, I read the story of Hero and Leander for the first time in Arabic / I believe that human beings everywhere share similar joys and sorrows.” Continue reading “Thought Magazine – 2003”

The Georgia Review – Fall 2003

This hefty collection of essays, fiction, poetry, art and reviews defies easy categorization, such as “traditional,” “Southern regional” or “academic.” The issue starts out with a riveting essay by Gerald Stern and continues with wonderful pieces like Nance Van Winckel’s luminous short story, “Funeral of the Virgin,” and Michael Chitwood’s poem “The Cello.” Continue reading “The Georgia Review – Fall 2003”

Green Mountains Review – Fall 2003

The sizeable, glossy Green Mountains Review is filled, as always, with fresh and interesting work; this time many of the pieces have a metaphysical bent, but with a twist, such as poems that meditate on the true holiness of the phrase “Holy Shit,” that imagine Mary Magdalene’s conversations about Jesus at the tomb, and that consider explanations of mortality to a little boy at a crematorium. Half tongue-in-cheek, Charles Harper Webb’s poem “In Unromantic Times” bemoans our contemporary cynicism, and the death of romance, with an edge of real grief at the end: Continue reading “Green Mountains Review – Fall 2003”

Five Fingers Review – 2002

The surrealist-naturalist oils of Margaret Wall-Romana set the tone for this journal, the theme of which is “Gardens in the Urban Jungle.” Grouped into sections according to which editor selected them, the works represent a broad interpretation of the seemingly-simple motif—from straightforward botanical sketches to Yiddish verse printed in both English and Hebrew. Continue reading “Five Fingers Review – 2002”

AGNI – Number 58

This eclectic and entertaining collection of full-color art work, poetry, short fiction and memoir provides space for highly ironic voices to mingle with the highly sincere. The eccentrically goofy tale of cons gone wrong, “That Kind of Nonsense” by Patrick Tobin, was a highlight, as were the poetry translations, including Robert Pinsky’s translation of Anna Akhmatova’s poem “The Summer Garden” and Taylor Stoehr’s translation of Li Po’s “Fighting South of the Wall.” Another short story, “Heathens,” by Alden Jones, describes the complicated relationships between a teacher, one of her young female students, and a church group teen on a mission trip in Costa Rica. The fascinating (and weirdly beautiful) photographs of decaying books by Rosamond Purcell lend irony to the reading experience. Continue reading “AGNI – Number 58”

Borderlands – Spring/Summer 2003

This journal out of Texas presents poetry, art work, photography, and reviews in a slim, perfectly bound package with good production values. The appealing poetry within captures a cross-section of American writing that balances heart and art; these works are beautiful in and of themselves but also strive to mean something. For instance, the poem “On Forgetting” by Megan Snyder-Camp plays on well-known proverbs to display a deeper truth about motherhood, as in the following: Continue reading “Borderlands – Spring/Summer 2003”

Pilgrimage – 2003

New publisher and editor Peter Anderson has saved the day! Long-time publishers Jack and Marcia Barstow retired last year, offering the magazine at no cost to anyone who would carry on the tradition of “personal reflective writing.” Anderson has moved the operation to Crestone, Colorado where, if this first issue in the journal’s twenty-eighth year is any indication, Pilgrimage will continue to delight and inspire us. According to Anderson, Pilgrimage serves an “eclectic fellowship of readers, writers, poets, naturalists, activists, contemplatives, seekers, adventurers, and other kindred spirits…” On encountering the moving and thoughtful writing here, one certainly wants to be belong to this “widespread community.” About half the pieces in this issue are reprinted from other publications, but many are from independent presses or sources with which readers may not be familiar. Continue reading “Pilgrimage – 2003”

The Gettysburg Review – Summer 2003

Okay, full disclosure: I will love any magazine that includes any work by Paul Maliszewski, fiction writer. I cannot help it. In the world of small literary magazines, most of us have authors for whom we’ll shell out anything to get the latest—a Dean Young or Bob Hicok or Olena Kalytiak Davis Poem, a Paul Maliszewski or Thomas de Zengotita or Aimee Bender story. So I’m biased toward this particular Gettysburg Review from the start because of Mr. Maliszewski and his story, which, like nearly all his other published work, is fun, funny, strange and beautiful. Continue reading “The Gettysburg Review – Summer 2003”

Event – 2003

An absolutely sensational cover on this terrific Canadian journal — “Avalok,” a painting by Chris Woods creates a “clash of perspectives” with an astoundingly life-like image of a server / goddess at McDonald’s with her sacred offerings of chicken nuggets / croquettes and cookies / biscuits (bilingual fast food in Canada, of course!). What’s inside is just as exciting. More than three dozen poems, most the work of poets with strong, quirky, original voices, four equally original stories, a personal essay, and several thoughtful reviews of books from noteworthy indie presses. It’s not hard to see why many of the writers published in Event rake in the big Canadian literary awards. Every piece here is truly an event. Poetry by Canadian writers Andy Stubbs and Sue Wheeler and by Californian John Randolph Carter is particularly striking, though all of the poetry in this issue is worth savoring; a story by Edward Maitano of New York could restore a cynic’s faith in the fate of short fiction. The volume opens with the marvelous translation by Jeffrey Angles of the work of widely published Japanese poet Keiz? Aizawa, a fitting invitation to the work that follows in this very memorable issue. Here is an excerpt: Continue reading “Event – 2003”

South Dakota Review – Spring/Summer 2003

For all the hoopla and sage editorial paragraphs regarding work grounded in location and place on the submission pages of many, many journals, few magazines can come close to the South Dakota Review’s incredibly grounded, sure, located/locatable collection in this, their 40th anniversary issue. As E.I. Pruitt writes to begin his poem “Corn”: “You can’t live in this part of the world for long / without developing a personal relationship with corn.” Continue reading “South Dakota Review – Spring/Summer 2003”

Terra Incognita – 2002/2003

Editors Alexandra van de Kamp (U.S.) and Alberto Domínguez  (Spain), two of five co-editors between Madrid and New York, tell us this bilingual journal “attempts to demarcate an open, lyrical territory in which surprising relationships and uncanny connections may occur among different worlds and points of views.” The work here does, indeed, reach beyond the mere distance between Manhattan and Madrid, offering an eclectic mix that is surprising and pleasing to find between one set of covers, from José  Saramago’s speech to the World Social Forum in Brazil in 2002 “From Justice to Democracy by Way of Our Bells,” to Sarah Kennedy’s quiet, painterly poem “Morning, with Tea.” Continue reading “Terra Incognita – 2002/2003”