Spittoon – Spring 2012

Spittoon magazine says, “To us, the form is as important as the content, and both form and content should work together to develop the intended effect,” and I think the pieces in this issue certainly hold true to that. When I was reading, I noticed a lot of different forms—something I always find endearing.

Spittoon magazine says, “To us, the form is as important as the content, and both form and content should work together to develop the intended effect,” and I think the pieces in this issue certainly hold true to that. When I was reading, I noticed a lot of different forms—something I always find endearing. The issue starts with a dialogue, “Phaedrus 2” by Stephen J. West, and continues through with forms such as Nathaniel Tower’s “Suicide Prevention Survey,” which asks nine questions about a person’s risk for suicide, and a detailed description of “Infant Intermittent Explosive Disorder” by Joseph Celizic. I was most taken with Anne Kingsfield’s nonfiction piece “Almost Places” in which she includes a collection of small sections portraying her relationship with an unnamed man, a man who seems to dismiss her and not pay attention to her as much as she would like. The writing is casual and conversational as it is directed toward this character, but there are brilliant lines throughout as well such as, “We thought we snuck in the wide open doors of the theatre in the middle of a practice, but sneaking is hard to do when the doors are wide open” and “I dreamt of your name last night, stuck between the empty lines of a poem where no words would fit.” Only at its fourth issue, this magazine is well on its way to something great that will continue to publish solid and interesting work.
[www.spittoonmag.com]