CONTENTS


UPCOMING: Nicholas Ripatrazone on Robert Olen Butler and the short story; Greg Weiss on recent Witness "Dismissing Africa" issue; The threat to university literary magazines; An in-depth look at Asia Literary Review; more of our Writers/Editors interview series...

Interview: Erin Fitzgerald, Northville Review
By Marcelle Heath

"I like when someone's very quietly or very openly fooling with an emotional manipulation dial."
"While my stories aren't autobiographical, I really do believe in the whole write-what-you-know thing. One time I wrote a story from the point of view of an old sick man and it was just terrible. It was like really bad Carver. The man sat around watching daytime television and eating pie."

Sort-of Prose Poems
By Nicholas Ripatrazone

"James Harms offers a contemplative effort in a lean essay that turns the prose poem discussion in a noteworthy direction..."

Poetry 2.0
By Marcelle Heath

"Setting aside, for now, its ideological nomenclature, its appeal lies in the interpretative dynamic between text and image..."

Greetings from Knockout
By Brett Ortler

"We started KO because we wanted to try something that was different than we'd seen in other literary magazines, both in terms of thematic slant and in terms of mission..."
"He said that if he were asked to be poetry editor of a magazine, he would aim for unity. I told him that was more or less the exact opposite of what I wanted to do..."

Bon Voyage
By Marcelle Heath

"I imagine party-goers huddled around a fire pit as they share stories about stalking a would-be lover..."

In Brief: The Appeal of Brevity
By Nicholas Ripatrazone

"Contemporary flash fiction has been slugged, whipped, and slapped: dragged through the literary mud, pegged as incidental..."
"Kayla Soyer-Stein recreates the wonderful magic and sense of the uncanny that fairy tales offer..."
"Recently I won a best humorous poem competition, and it appears I have a knack for healthy self-ridicule..."
"I think about that a lot—about the balance of light and dark and about allowing my characters to have an open destiny. I think that’s one of the most important aspects of story writing..."
"It calls itself the 'farthest north literary journal for writing and the arts,' which sounded a bit suspicious to me, so I did a little poking around to verify the assertion..."

Some Thoughts on Poetry
By Ben Leubner

"The history of Poetry is a history of resistance in all directions..."
"The 1990s was a wild, wonderful, idealistic decade in Prague. Excellent exchange rates and the possibility of a relatively uninhibited way of life lured expatriates in droves to the Czech capital. In short, it was the perfect time for the founding of a literary journal..."
"One author climbs to the top of a tree trunk support beam that’s part of the architecture of the writing space. Another is balancing a couch cushion on his head and explaining wog: a dog who uses a dog-sized wheel chair to get his back end around San Francisco..."

Avian Arts: The LBJ
By Nicholas Ripatrazone

"While literary niches often result in suffocation, eighty pages of plaid, The LBJ’s aviary focus proves malleable enough..."

The 7th Annual New Orleans Bookfair
By Kenneth Harshbarger

“'In consideration of what looks like a total collapse of our economic system,' he said, 'I thought the bookfair went very well...'"
"There are two wooden figures on my husband’s desk. Figurines. They are meant to resemble humans, black humans. African-Americans..."
 
 

How to Criticize: A Writer Attends Meeka Walsh’s Workshop on Art Criticism
By Nigel Beale

Her mother was happiest in the Arctic. She, on the other hand, seems most content reading and writing about art, happiestif there must be a placein the pages of an arts magazine Robert Fulford has called “indispensable.”

She is Meeka Walsh, editor of that indispensable arts magazine, the Winnipeg-based Border Crossings. One Saturday afternoon at the Ottawa Art Gallery, I attended Walsh's workshop on reviewing, held as part of the Gallery's Articulation series on writing art criticism.

Before discussing the nature of reviewing and the expectations she has for material published in Border Crossings, Walsh got political. Arts magazines, she said, are essential outlets for critical writing: they record culture, review what is important in creative output, and report on its presentation. Magazines are among the few venues where measurable distance exists between the commissioners of art exhibitions and those who write about them. Catalogues, though instructive, are rarely critical. A robust community of independent publications producing a multiplicity of views and voices and objective assessment is essential if serious arts culture is to survive in Canada.

This self-evident truth is evidently not so truthful to the Canada Council. They've cut grants to the magazine sector in recent years, cuts that threaten to cripple the arts in this country, including putting publications like Border Crossings out of business. This, we are informed, does not please Walsh.

Holding to the philosophy that reviews should be written with a spirit of generosity, Walsh, as a general rule, commissions writing only from those who both admire and demonstratively understand artworks that are assigned; she favors reviews with outlooks large and capacious, and advises they be written “as you'd wish them to be written of your work.” When assessing potential magazine contributors, she looks for those who know the artist's oeuvre, its location on the theoretical spectrum, its creative context, and the comparable efforts of others. In other words, writers who know their stuff.

But this still is not enough. Writers must have discernible style; must be able to write clearly and accessibly without making a spectacle of their words, without eclipsing the work under review, without jargon—in short, without showing off. Or, as Fulford describes it: they must be able to communicate art ideas to non-artists and artists alike, explaining what matters to the first group without boring or appalling the second.

Writing about exhibits should also create a feel for the event. It should make the reader want to be there, or, failing this, to search for more, to learn more, to be curious. To achieve this, the writer has to display enthusiasm and a sense of engaged interest. In order to get their opinions published, writers must evoke more than describe the show, and let readers know, with some emphasis and flair, exactly how they feel.

Subscribing to the axiom that the best way to learn is to do, Walsh presented several examples of “full,” “successful,” and “mature” Border Crossings review articles. Winning qualities included fairness, thoroughness, accessibility, and just the right degree of cranky opinionatedness. Openings were declarative and intriguing, the type that require a certain authority. Politics, artistic period, and curator intent were all explained. The writing also corresponded to the nature of the show examined. For example, here is what Brian Joseph Davis says about "The Downtown Show: The New York Arts Scene, 1974-1984":

Large and unwieldy blocks of time past are ripe for the ham-handed reductions and glib wall cards that often turn big exhibitions into lifeless kiosks, but ‘The Downtown Show’ has turned the unwieldy to its advantage. The result is something cramped, complex, loving, messy and brilliant - like a neighborhood.

And this part Walsh loves:

Several artists float from one section to another, and punk, in the form of flyers and constant soundtrack, is a note that hovers through it all - perhaps a little too much. In a gallery context, punk always carries the sad air of a zoo animal about it.

Walsh also speaks highly of veteran Border Crossings contributing editor Robin Laurence, whose article "Fred Herzog: Vancouver Photographs" is accessible, free of jargon yet erudite, and instructive without being didactic. Laurence hooks the reader, then offers context, locating the photographer in history and practice. Her prose dances with a sense of rhythm Walsh appreciates:

He also shows back alleys, fairgrounds, gaming arcades, rooming houses, parking lots, concession stands, billboards and neon signs. Lots of neon signs, glowing red, orange, green and blue against a nighttime drapery of rain and darkness.

In addition to rarefied text, we also get a neat summary of subject, material, period, and setting—what Herzog was and wasn't interested in, who he is and what he does. An interesting pastiche of opinion and background.

Walsh will, on rare occasion, publish negative reviews, but only if she knows the artist can take it. The young and tender need not worry. But if the piece contains qualities mentioned above, if the attack isn't gratuitous, if it's grounded in genuine informed and passionate anger, and it lets loose with some memorable zingers—then she will damn the torpedoes.

*

For those interested in submitting articles to Border Crossings, Walsh suggests reading back issues and noting the style, which is a typical recommendation of magazine editors. For example, don't send manuscripts containing footnotes, they aren't used in the magazine—do so at your peril. Also, choose your subject carefully. Select exhibitions that are current,noteworthy, traveling, catalogued, and controversial. You must prove you are informed, not only about the art, but about things associated with the artist, the show, and the environment. Most importantly perhaps, you must present a compelling reason for its publication—and be persistent.

Finally, to hone your skills, browse and critique lots of reviews. Read, read, read. (Walsh especially recommends The Nation and Frieze magazine.)

Motivated by an insane, deep-seated love of books, Nigel Beale has, during the past several years, traveled the globe interviewing an impressive selection of award winning authors and accomplished booksellers, publishers, collectors and book experts for a radio program he hosts called The Biblio File. He’s also snapped a few photos of bookstores along the way. He blogs at www.nigelbeale.com where most interviews conducted for The Biblio File can be found.

FEATURED MAGAZINE / JULY 2009:
CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunction issue 52 cover image

Conjunctions 52: Betwixt the Between, Impossible Realism
Editor: Bradford Morrows and Brian Evenson. Bard College, NY. Est. 1981. www.conjunctions.com


NOTICE: Luna Park will be moving to York College of Pennsylvania this coming August. Please update your contact information:

Luna Park
441 Country Club Road
York, PA 17403-3651


NEWSREEL

New literary magazine from Dzanc Books, The Collagist, edited by Matt Bell (in case you forgot, we are fans of Mr. Bell)

Granta teams up with Flavorpill for The Rehearsal Project Short-Film Contest

Isotopeliterary/science hybrid magazinelooks like it will be losing its funding from Utah State University

Waldo Jaquith of Virginia Quarterly Review busts Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson for wiki-plagiarism

Canadian magazines such as Malahat Review threatened by national funding changes

John Freeman steps in as new editor of Granta—previous editor Alex Clark stepped down after just 18 months in the job

Ted Genoways & Michael Lukas blog at VQR on threats to New England Review and The Southern Review

New literary magazine out of Oxford, Mississippi: Kitty Snacks

Utne Reader announces 2009 Independent Press Awards, winners include VQR, Lapham's, and etc.

New literary magazine wordriver dedicated to creative writing of all non-tenure instructors at universities

io9 blogs about "New Wave Fabulists" issue of Conjunctions

PAST NEWSREEL...


EVENTS

July 15: Park Lit in Fort Greene Park. An evening of readings and music with A Public Space contributors, editors, and friends. Park Lit, a summer reading series in New York City's parks, is sponsored by The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Open City, and Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. Fort Greene Park Visitor Center Brooklyn, NY 7:00 PM

Opium magazine Literary Death Match: NYC, San Fran, Denver, Beijing, etc [ongoing series]

One Story cocktail hour at Pianos, New York City [ongoing series]


Luna Park is a proud member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses



Hitotoki — A narrative map of the world