The 50th Anniversary Issue of Seneca Review, ON ANXIETY, is guest edited by Joe Wenderoth. Featuring poems and essays by Mary Ruefle, Graham Foust, Jamil Jan Kochai, Kitty Liang, Immanuel Mifsud, Amie Zimmerman, Lake Angela, Judy Bertelsen, Laura Brun, Eric Burger, Mike Carlson, Curtis D’Costa, and more. Cover art and design by Abigail Frederick.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas
The Fall 2019 issue of Seneca Review includes four pieces by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram. These visual pieces draw in the eye with text boxes layered over one another, reminding me of a house of cards that’s fallen, the cards now strewn in overlapping angles. They’re all titled “World Map:” with a different year following the colon.
In these pieces, Bertram speaks about race and sexuality. The exploration of these themes comes in snippets that repeat and fade away like memories that resurface repeatedly: instant messenger conversations, conversations with her mother, antagonization on the basketball court.
Bertram uses the visuals in an inventive way that helps the poetry move along and creates a bigger impact for the message. I read the four pieces over and over, fully admiring the way in which they were presented.
In this issue of Seneca Review you’ll find poems and essays by Carl Dennis, Donald Revell, Katrina Vandenberg, Adam Clay, Lyllian-Yvonne Bertram, Karen Brennan, James Longenbach, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Tyler Mills, Katharine Coles, Maya Pindyck, Emma Bolden, Geneviève Paiement, Timothy O’Keefe, and more.
In December of 2019, Seneca Review announced the winner of its annual Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize.
Final judge Jenny Boully selected Living Room Horses by Minnesota-based essayist and playwright Jessica Lind Peterson. The book will be published in November 2020.
Finalists:
Vanessa Saunders, The Flat Woman
Dennis James Sweeney, You’re the Woods Too
Nance Van Winckel, Sister Zero