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Salt Hill – 2004

Winter 2004

Sima Rabinowitz

Always surprising and unconventional, this issue of Salt Hill is even edgier than usual, with Thom Ward’s “imaginary” scholar Dr. Arnold Schnagel and Schnagel’s parody of reviews and critiques (like this one!) of the work of “imaginary poet” Jan DeKeerk whose very real poetry is translated here (from Flemish) by Schnagel; and Steve Almond’s interview with novelist and screenwriter Tom Perotta (“Q: But you don’t behave badly?” A: Well, I’m a fiction writer”); and Denise Duhamel’s poem “Lost Bra,” thirty-four couplets, every line of which ends with the words “Maidenform Bra.” G. C. Waldrep contributes three poems with his signature merger of the sacred and the profane (as it happens, a story about Waldrep’s conversion to the Amish is featured in the latest issue of Poets & Writers and provides a context for his work). Poet Miles Waggener contributes excellent translations from the Spanish of three poems by Jaime Siles — poems that at moments sound as raw as Peter Cooley, who also has a poem in this issue, and a verse or two later as erudite as Jorge Luis Borges: “Hace que deulen hasta los pronombres/It hurts right to the very pronouns.” There’s never a dull moment at Salt Hill. [Salt Hill,  Syracuse University, English Department, Syracuse, NY 13244. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $8. http://students.syr.edu/salthill/] – SR

Always surprising and unconventional, this issue of Salt Hill is even edgier than usual, with Thom Ward’s “imaginary” scholar Dr. Arnold Schnagel and Schnagel’s parody of reviews and critiques (like this one!) of the work of “imaginary poet” Jan DeKeerk whose very real poetry is translated here (from Flemish) by Schnagel; and Steve Almond’s interview with novelist and screenwriter Tom Perotta (“Q: But you don’t behave badly?” A: Well, I’m a fiction writer”); and Denise Duhamel’s poem “Lost Bra,” thirty-four couplets, every line of which ends with the words “Maidenform Bra.” G. C. Waldrep contributes three poems with his signature merger of the sacred and the profane (as it happens, a story about Waldrep’s conversion to the Amish is featured in the latest issue of Poets & Writers and provides a context for his work). Poet Miles Waggener contributes excellent translations from the Spanish of three poems by Jaime Siles — poems that at moments sound as raw as Peter Cooley, who also has a poem in this issue, and a verse or two later as erudite as Jorge Luis Borges: “Hace que deulen hasta los pronombres/It hurts right to the very pronouns.” There’s never a dull moment at Salt Hill. [Salt Hill,  Syracuse University, English Department, Syracuse, NY 13244. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $8. http://students.syr.edu/salthill/] – SR

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