From the Backs of the Racks

The mantle of unacknowledgement falls on many shoulders beyond the poetic brotherhood (and sisterhood): librarians, primary school teachers, booksellers, and so forth. The many small (this description apparently refers to circulation size) magazines and their preternaturally dedicated staffs existing across the U.S. and the known world are overqualified for this honorable designation.

The newly redesigned Ploughshares is one of my favorites based on its policy of having each issue guested. This recent issue was compiled by author and memoirist Kathyrn Harrison and anthologizes 20 essays, of which Harrison writes:

Open City continues to offer offbeat gems and a variety of unorthodoxies. The Summer 2009 issue by editors Thomas Beller and Johanna Yas contains fiction by Vestal McIntyre, Eva Marer, Zachary Lazar, and A.M. Homes, with nonfiction from Bryan Charles, Patricia Bosworth (on Lois Gould), and Edmund White (on Harold Brodkey), plus poetry by Billy Collins.

The venerable Paris Review contains its trademark mélange of literary nuggets, including an interview with Gay Talese on the art of nonfiction. You can also read my conversation with Gay Talese here.

A Public Space, which is a somewhat recent entry into the literary fray, publishes wonderful writing, some by familiar names like Samantha Hunt, Yiyun Li, Adrienne Rich, Matthew Zapruder, and Carl Phillips--and many more by names that will become familiar.