Journals

Marjorie Perloff is, no doubt, More Important than I am or ever will be. Marjorie Perloff teaches at Fancy universities and write Fancy Articles about poetry that are published in Important Places and say Important Things. But for someone who has spent so much time reading poetry and thinking about poetry and writing about poetry, Marjorie Perloff doesn't seem to like poetry all that much. In a recent Boston Review essay, Marjorie Perloff participates in that most favorite critical activity of decrying the State of Poetry Today.

There's really not much in this piece you haven't read before: Too many MFA programs this, way too many literary journals that, too many poets, too many poems, and does no one care about verse anymore? Also, Rita Dove is dumb and her anthology is dumb. Perloff knows this anthology is dumb because she gives Dove's introduction a cursory fisking, and because she opened the book "at random" to find a Larry Levis poem that had three lines that to Perloff's ear sounded like prose. Also, there's a Natasha Trethewey poem that Perloff doesn't care for. And that's how reading works. If you can find three lines "at random" that you don't like, plus another poem that's sort of weak, THE REST OF THE BOOK SUCKS. ALSO, ALL OF POETRY TODAY SUCKS. ... »Read more »

Spring is my favorite season. Always has been. Of course, I grew up in Alabama, where spring starts in February (and winter is a long weekend or so in January). Admittedly, this has been maybe the mildest of all possible Michigan winters, but it's still nice to be walking around in short sleeves again.

And one of the newfound joys of the season? Spring issues of literary journals start showing up in the mailbox. This week brought three new issues of journals that were kind enough to feature my work: Barbaric Yawp 16.1, Yemassee 18.1&2, and Poet Lore 107.1/2. Always a pleasure to see new writing show up with the afternoon mail.... »Read more »

Okay, so Mike Meginnes at HTMLGIANT has made me all self-conscious about the praise I sometimes bestow in this little blog. Am I being sincere? What are my motives? Am I doing this just to call attention to myself in the end? Do I have this fantasy that I will say nice things about some writer, and they will stumble across it someday while searching for their own name, and say, "Hey, that Amorak said nice things about me. I will ..." well, and that's where the fantasy kind of drifts into nothingness. They'll follow me on Twitter? Link to my blog? E-mail me? What am I hoping to gain, anyway? (I guess the same kind of nebulous approval-seeking validation I hope to gain when I write anything. It's not like there's any money in this.)

So, after reading Meginnes' piece, I'm thinking: Do I need to be meaner? Should I say negative things about shit I don't like so that people will believe me when I say something nice? Because, sure, I read shit I don't like all the time. Sometimes I actively, aggressively dislike stuff. Other times -- far more often -- I have that shrugging-meh-whatever-I'd-rather-be-watching-Hoarders reaction. Meginnes suggests that maybe I'd be doing the lit world a favor by calling out pieces that aren't working, so their writers could learn and grow from the criticism. And then the killer, really-close-to-home zinger comes in the comments, where someone named Dave K. calls out people who "get so wrapped up in marketing themselves as a Supportive Community Member Who Also Writes (Hint Hint) that they almost forget how to be honest about what really motivates them, and what doesn't." Jesus. Is that what I'm doing here?... »Read more »

The Southern Review's Spring 2011 issue is devoted to Americana, and it turned out to be the last issue edited by Jeanne M. Leiby, who died in a car accident in April. A really, really sad thing, and a real loss to the American literary world. She was, by all accounts, a terrific person and talented, inspiring editor. (I did not know her personally, aside from a brief e-mail correspondence when she accepted a poem for this issue of TSR; I wish I had known her.)

At the beginning of this issue, Jeanne and Jen McClanaghan have a Q&A about the assembling of the issue and about the nature of Americana. It closes with these words from Jeanne:

"Maybe this sounds odd, but what you just said about Americana is an almost perfect articulation of what a literary magazine can be, what I hope The Southern Review is, and what I hope our readers will experience with this and with every issue -- a landscape continually resettled and redefined."

It's a great way to think about a magazine, about literature in general. And this is a terrific issue. "Americana" as a theme could easily lend itself to cliche, or at least an overabundance of familiarity. But it doesn't happen. The stories and poems and essays and photographs in this issue are unsettling, surprising, provocative. They are familiar only in the sense that once you've read them you realize they've revealed something about the world around you that maybe you've always known (or should have known) but never said aloud.... »Read more »

Making good on my pledge to read and recognize work I like in journals that publish my writing, I've spent some time with the current issues of Thin Air and Naugatuck River Review, as well as the online journal Ramshackle Review. ... »Read more »