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Return of the Free Fiction Extravaganza!
Jun. 21st, 2010 01:51 pmIn the wake of my stepfather's death and the end of the most recent semester of graduate school, I wound up in a non-communicative lassitude. I'm trying to shake myself loose now, and am a bit horrified at how behind I am on free fiction recommendations around here. This really only calls for one thing, you know:
FREE FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA!
Oh, yes, I am going to leap forth with a veritable cornucopia of links and mini-reviews! Twice a week, to begin with, but we may do it more often as I make up for these many lost weeks.
Let's start with Mythic Delirium. Now, Mythic Delirium is an excellent poetry journal edited by Mike Allen. It's also not free: however, because Mike is wise to the ways of one good bite demanding another, he offers featured selections from Mythic Delirium with each issue. He doesn't take them away, either, as a glance at the bottom of the currently Featured section will reveal.
He also throws in the accompanying illustrations (and shares audio recordings when he has them!), because he's just a classy guy like that.
The latest issue of Mythic Delirium was guest-edited by the lovely Goblin Queens, Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick; I have it waiting temptingly on my shelf and will review it in full later. Just now, though, I really must encourage you to click over to the poetry journal's website proper and read the two selections from Mythic Delirium 22 that are featured.
"The Reaper's Wife" by Susan Slaviero
What can I say? This is simply beautiful and I love it: I see the South clothed here in mythical language, and one of my favorite tropes (relating to an anthropomorphized Death) pursued. The accompanying illustration by Paula Arwen Friedlander is everything I could have hoped, as well, arresting my eye and fracturing my gaze. The bold lines depict such an easily-grasped scene, yet I find my eyes also unfocusing to engage the art on a more basic level, and I am suddenly lost in an abstract pattern of dark and light.
To return to Slaviero's words, I know there are only a couple of Southern-specific phrases in the poem, but it sings to me in the lush language of Southern summer, where all is dense and slow, and so, so hot. Everything then (now) prefers to move through the dark. The poem leads me into thoughts of verdancy and decay twinned, running horses over graveyard-fields. Woven through there are hard lives and poverty, but also family strength and fierce caretaking. The more I think on "The Reaper's Wife," the more it speaks to my roots.
"Cave-smell" by Shweta Narayan
Narayan is such a strong poet, and I always find my anticipation heightened when I see her name on a TOC. My expectations were not dashed here. When I read "Cave-smell," I found myself blinking on the other side and thinking:
Oh. Oh, gosh. Sad and rough, gentle and honey-bitter.
The poem is a science fiction tale and a post-colonial meditation. It reflects on not belonging to your own home through no fault of your own, and captures such great sadness and complexity in the interstices between language and wordlessness. This poem is best read than reviewed in any greater detail, apart from this: the illustration complements the work well, emphasizing the deep discomfort and loneliness of the disconnect. I stand impressed by Narayan's poem, and troubled.
I don't have a moment, just now, to listen to the audio recordings. Or to talk about the final and amazing feature: Amal El-Mohtar's "Song for an Ancient City" and her father's translation into Arabic of the same, which definitely calls for another post. Please, though, I hope you have time to listen and to read. Come back afterward, and tell me what you think.
P.S. Remember, the Chimera Fancies A Local Habitation pendant sale begins at 9 AM PST!
This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on June 18th, 2010 at 9:24 AM. You can comment here or there.
Oh, yes, I am going to leap forth with a veritable cornucopia of links and mini-reviews! Twice a week, to begin with, but we may do it more often as I make up for these many lost weeks.
Let's start with Mythic Delirium. Now, Mythic Delirium is an excellent poetry journal edited by Mike Allen. It's also not free: however, because Mike is wise to the ways of one good bite demanding another, he offers featured selections from Mythic Delirium with each issue. He doesn't take them away, either, as a glance at the bottom of the currently Featured section will reveal.
He also throws in the accompanying illustrations (and shares audio recordings when he has them!), because he's just a classy guy like that.
The latest issue of Mythic Delirium was guest-edited by the lovely Goblin Queens, Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick; I have it waiting temptingly on my shelf and will review it in full later. Just now, though, I really must encourage you to click over to the poetry journal's website proper and read the two selections from Mythic Delirium 22 that are featured.
"The Reaper's Wife" by Susan Slaviero
What can I say? This is simply beautiful and I love it: I see the South clothed here in mythical language, and one of my favorite tropes (relating to an anthropomorphized Death) pursued. The accompanying illustration by Paula Arwen Friedlander is everything I could have hoped, as well, arresting my eye and fracturing my gaze. The bold lines depict such an easily-grasped scene, yet I find my eyes also unfocusing to engage the art on a more basic level, and I am suddenly lost in an abstract pattern of dark and light.
To return to Slaviero's words, I know there are only a couple of Southern-specific phrases in the poem, but it sings to me in the lush language of Southern summer, where all is dense and slow, and so, so hot. Everything then (now) prefers to move through the dark. The poem leads me into thoughts of verdancy and decay twinned, running horses over graveyard-fields. Woven through there are hard lives and poverty, but also family strength and fierce caretaking. The more I think on "The Reaper's Wife," the more it speaks to my roots.
"Cave-smell" by Shweta Narayan
Narayan is such a strong poet, and I always find my anticipation heightened when I see her name on a TOC. My expectations were not dashed here. When I read "Cave-smell," I found myself blinking on the other side and thinking:
Oh. Oh, gosh. Sad and rough, gentle and honey-bitter.
The poem is a science fiction tale and a post-colonial meditation. It reflects on not belonging to your own home through no fault of your own, and captures such great sadness and complexity in the interstices between language and wordlessness. This poem is best read than reviewed in any greater detail, apart from this: the illustration complements the work well, emphasizing the deep discomfort and loneliness of the disconnect. I stand impressed by Narayan's poem, and troubled.
I don't have a moment, just now, to listen to the audio recordings. Or to talk about the final and amazing feature: Amal El-Mohtar's "Song for an Ancient City" and her father's translation into Arabic of the same, which definitely calls for another post. Please, though, I hope you have time to listen and to read. Come back afterward, and tell me what you think.
P.S. Remember, the Chimera Fancies A Local Habitation pendant sale begins at 9 AM PST!
This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on June 18th, 2010 at 9:24 AM. You can comment here or there.