Chekhov's Mistress
New Zoo Review
Today, I went to the CLMP’s annual Literary Magazine Fair at Housing Works Bookstore (see my earlier post). An impressive group, considering that most of the journals represented (perhaps all?) are either not-for-profit or not profitable – a labour of love, as they say. I don’t know anyone in this crowd, but I listened in to some chatting (a flaw of mine) and I would gather, as I guessed, that most everyone there was a writer. Where are the readers? I bought several journals, after perusing quite a few more, not to read, but to find homes for my own writing. The audience for these journals is small, and I suppose that most who subscribe or buy are also submitting too. This is in no way meant to be a criticism, merely an observation, or maybe even a lament. Nonetheless, there is a good deal of impressive writing out there (and some bad), and these folks make sure it exists.
Still, I’m a bit confused about this community. Maisonneuve, a Canadian journal, sitting there on the shelf among its peers, opined that “Some of the dullest, least imaginative people you’ll ever meet seem to coagulate around the literary quarterlies…” This comment, in the Letter from the Editor section, seems a little naughty, considering that they mingle among the very company who they damn. I didn’t see an editor from Maisonneuve present, but presumably someone must have been there, grinning through at least one of his faces.
Anyway, I bought eleven literary journals (at $2 per), most of which I had never before heard of; they had names like The First Line, Spinning Jenny, and The Land-Grant College Review. I put quite a bit of energy into sifting through the myriad zines represented for good content with themes and styles that I found appealing. One I found particularly interesting, which exists only on-line, is Memorious. Among other things, the inaugural issue includes audio recordings of three poems and a story by JT LeRoy that looks pretty good. LeRoy, while being very young, is already making a name for himself.
The First Line has an interesting concept at least; they give the first line and writers are to submit stories taking it from there. Each quarterly issue features nothing but stories using that line. These guys, incidentally, are from Texas, which leads me to my last impression taken from the fair – not all literary people are from New York City! And I thought you had to live within a small radius of Paul Auster in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to be literary.
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: June 13, 2004
- Filed Under:
Literary Journals
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
