#littlemags

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Canadian Writers’ Cards: Collect Them All!

Northern Journey was a literary magazine published in Ottawa, Ontario, from 1971 to 1976. Issue 4 features a pen and ink drawing by Jan Funnekotter as well as these terrific Canadian Writers’ Cards, including one of the cover artist. Some of the journal’s other issues also include cards featuring contributors with their bios, although in a slightly different format. Which contemporary journal will take up the torch and delight us with a new version of writers’ cards?

If that isn’t reason enough to take a look at Northern Journey, the fourth issue indicates the journal had a brush with literary scandal. A letter from editors Craig Campbell, Valerie Kent, David McDonald and Fraser Sutherland discusses objections to “Short Burn,” a story by Wil Wigle that appeared in the previous issue and mentions Margaret Atwood. Apparently, lawyers representing Atwood and the Writers’ Union of Canada contacted the magazine about Wigle’s use of Atwood in his story, suggesting the editors withdraw the issue and apologize. They didn’t and cite “liberty of expression.”

You can enjoy all the intrigue, stories, artwork and literary cards Northern Journey produced in its five-year run in Memorial Library’s Special Collections. Just remember: We’re closed for the holiday on Monday.

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We’ve been enjoying the numerous little magazines arriving in Special Collections. The cover art for Descant v. 55 by Stacy Tompkins wowed us.

Willow Springs no. 80 celebrates 40 years. Congratulations! It includes an interview with Paul Harding, in which he talks about the effect he hopes his books have on readers. “At a certain point, a novel about how noisy the world is lapses into the noise it deplores. … I want my work to be antidotes to noise. … I want your brain to quiet down when my books pass through you,” he says. “You can’t give yourself to noise. The more you cultivate yourself, the easier it is to empathize. The more selfless you are, the more you are yourself.” Here’s wishing you some quiet time amid the holiday noise.

Special Collections will be closed until Jan. 2. Please visit us then to get your fill of literary goodies. 

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6x6 Goes Out in Style

We received the last issue of 6x6 from Ugly Duckling Presse, and it’s a beaut. The careful attention to detail and thoughtfulness that went into its making are why we still love print in the digital era. The tactile sensations of the cover flocking, the black floral illustration theme and the simple craftsmanship of its binding work together with the words of the six featured poets to create a unique reader experience. While we do plenty of reading online, too, reading in print provides an added layer of escape from so many potential distractions.

That said, it’s hard to escape the politics blooming in Chia-Lun Chang’s work. In “If I Were Born in America,” she writes: “I would be proud of who I have become / my bone would bond with the land / my nerves begin to burn with truths.” Check out her poems, and those of her literary compatriots, in No. 36. And if you’re new to 6x6, we invite you to read through the back issues in Special Collections!

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Kart, an Australian little mag devoted entirely to art, dubs itself “an instant art collection in a box,” with bookmarks, postcard-like images and other works from contributors around the globe. Recently, Special Collections received a number of issues whose colorful images burst forth from their silk-screened brown packages. In fact, we have many issues, including the first ones published in 2006.

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Ecotone Evokes Craft

For Issue 24 of Ecotone, the editors curated work on the theme of craft. Contributors share thoughts on the craft of crochet, metalwork, cello, fiddle, architecture, drawing and portraiture, notes editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell in her introduction. She also considers the craft of editing and discusses how the magazine trains its MFA student editors as well as the journal’s editorial philosophy. 

“A fact of our labor is that some of it is exciting and requires deep intellectual and emotional engagement, and some of it is rather repetitive and requires care and stamina, and some of it is generative and requires goofiness and laying out lots of ideas and leaving things to rest overnight and coming back to them with fresh eyes,” she writes.

She invited contributing writers and artists to submit their comments as well and collected 25 sentences on craft. Some highlights:

“Craft is hot emotions in cold containers; craft is the raft we’re sailing these rapids on, out to sea.” — David Macey

“I think of writing in form as the discovery of an underground spring, with rhyme as a ladder into the dark of the subconscious and meter as the unchecked flow I find there.” — Maryann Corbett

“Craft for me is all about assembling pieces—a collage, a crazy quilt—of voice and memory.” — Jill McCorkle

There’s plenty to ponder and much to inspire in this issue.

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Seeing Is Believing

If you’re interested in the history of little magazines and early zines, take a look at The Blind Man, a facsimile edition of Issues 1 and 2, that honors the 100th anniversary of the short-lived little mag. Collaborators include Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood, Henri Pierre Roché, Mina Loy, Alfred Stieglitz and others. The edition also includes facsimiles of Rongwrong as well as The Ridgefield Gazook by Man Ray.

There’s more: Sophie Seita, an artist and scholar focusing on avant-garde writing and art, offers an interesting perspective on the collaborative (and other) aspects of these zines in “The Blind Man Sees the Fountain: New York Dada Magazines in 1917; An Introduction.” “Like many little magazines,The Blind Man was the product of a friendship and a small, local community,” she writes. Of course, collaboration continues to be key in the production of zines, little magazines and artists’ books today. And if you don’t know French, you can rely on Elizabeth Zuba’s translations, which are part of the handsome package.

The Little Magazine Collection is shelved by title. You can view The Blind Man in Special Collections on the ninth floor of Memorial Library.

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Comics in Lit Mags

We’ve noticed an increasing number of literary journals that publish comics poetry and stories. In fact, Ink Brick distinguishes itself by publishing comics poetry exclusively, though the editors indicate that they’re not sticklers for defining the genre but interested in exciting work. A recent issue of Booth devoted a section to comics, and McSweeney’s published a story about eviction in Detroit by Jeffrey Wilson with art by Armin Ozdic.

How have comics found their way into lit mags? We think one reason is the high quality of the writing. “Our mango tree died the day Tita was born,” begins “Tita,” by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, a writer born and raised in Hawaii and now living in Japan. “It was not the slow death of starvation, but a quick moment of green turned to scorched leaves and rotting fruit. Pulp blackened as foul waves filled the yard, strangling the soft sweet perfume of the tuberose.” “Tita” appears in issue 11 of Booth accompanied by colorful art by Sean Marmon.

Read them in full in Special Collections, and get inspired to create your own poetic comics!

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Bennington Review Redux

The Little Magazine Collection recently acquired issues of the rebooted Bennington Review, now under the direction of Michael Dumanis, a faculty member at Bennington College. “This is the third inaugural issue,” Dumanis notes in the Spring/Summer 2016 issue. “We were originally inaugurated in 1966 by photographer Laurence J. Hyman, the son of critic Stanley Edgar Hyman and author Shirley Jackson, a Bennington alum.” The magazine continued until 1970, Dumanis explains, and then in 1978 editors Robert Boyers and Nicholas Delbanco revived it. They featured Jorge Luis Borges, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, John Ashbery, Ai, Annie Dillard and May Sarton, Dumanis points out. Now, 30 years later, the journal is publishing Nick Flynn, Meena Alexander, Deb Olin Unferth, Rick Moody, and a host of other talented folks. 

To celebrate Bennington Review’s return, here’s a peek at its transformation over the years. From the beginning, it showcased great writing and elegant art and design. Take a look yourself in Special Collections, and welcome back, Bennington Review!