Issue 30.2: This is heavy

 Photo via supercarnet

I think this is probably my favorite time machine. It's still one of my life goals, owning a DeLorean. I know that there are some diehard fans out there who have tricked up their DMC-12s, but I haven't (alas) seen one in person. Last I heard, they were being put back on the assembly line for a very pretty penny. Anybody have $57,500 to spare? Just look at those gull-wing doors.

Onto our issue highlight!

Issue 30.2: Winter 2008. The cover features penguins. A legion of penguins wearing ties! This issue doesn't go too far back, but it's one of my most-read issues. So much marvelous stuff here. Much of the work has an otherworldly feel to it, dark and funny and beautiful. To name a few of the recurring motifs -- cities, ice, and bears. (And now it sounds like there are ice-skating city bears. Sorry to disappoint.)

Kevin Prufer's poem "Transparent Cities" remains a favorite, recalling fairy tales: "I fell into a snow bank and didn't wake again, / but felt, in my few moments that remained, / the flush of childhood, / and saw (until my eyeballs bleared and wouldn't close) / the snow / like killing angels over me -- / windswirl and gasp, / in every hand a needle -- and then the sting as my dull flesh / chilled and wouldn't pulse again."

In this issue, Emily Raabe also casts a new angle to the Biblical tale of Jesus and Lazarus in her poem, "An Old Story." And Katie Umans considers the comical and disturbing possibility of ostrich-parents in her poem, "The Ostriches Take a Human Child."

Ted Sanders won a 2010 O. Henry Prize for his short story, "Obit," which we celebrated some time ago. The story is incredibly striking on the page, and I remember being amazed when I first read it. It defies chronology and it's haunting:

"The boy who falls asleep to the story of the bear will grow old and wordlessly die. In the end, he will die across his pancakes, coughing up blood at a restaurant in a distant town, blood freckling the arms and throat of his latest wife, the table, the dark stone floor where bright ice and dark water from his spilled glass will also fall. All of these events occur, and more. But the boy who will become this man is still young. He still lives in the yellow house where he was conceived..."

If you'd like to read more, get your copy here! We've got 25 issues available for $5 each! Remember to include "issue 30.2" in the description box.

-DK

On Congratulations, Hoverboards, and Issue 29.1

June continues with its hot n humid days, and here at IR with the air conditioner blasting in our faces continue with our flash to the past. You know, I really thought they would have invented Hoverboards by 2010. Alas (or thankfully), technology can't keep up with our imaginations. Thank goodness for the written word which turns our inward musings into a thing to be shared.

Today's highlight comes to us from the beautiful issue 29.1 (Summer 2007).  Its one of my favorite covers.

And between the covers are a great host of well-imagined poems, short stories, nonfiction, and a special highlight on the prose poem.  Alberto Rios, our final judge of the 2010 1/2 K Prize (hurry this contest is open for another 48 hours!) has both fiction and poetry in this issue.

There is a short story called "Ye Olde Twentieth Century" by Wendy Rawlings, that evocatively starts:

I have made a mistake. Not a leave-chewing-gum-in-your-pocket-and-put-it in-the-wash kind of mistake. More like leave-an-infant-alone-with-an-open-can-of-paint thinner. They got my ballpoint pens, Indiglo waterproof watch, plastic map case, Velcro-close shoes, condoms & KY. I still have my cell phone. That’s one consolation. And I have plenty of stuff. It’s not like being in jail and needing to fashion a weapon out of a singular fork. Victorians were the first great collectors. They collected animal bones, shells, postcards, hat pins. They collected hair and braided it into art. There is something so inherently wrong with that and yet Doreen finds it charming.

And Jeff Hoffman kicks of issue with his poem, "Victory Crowd," and to him we owe a Huzzah! Hip Hip Hooray because he was just awarded the 2010 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript Journal of American Foreign Policy. Linda Gregerson, author of Magnetic North, judged. Congratulations Jeff! We look forward to seeing your published manuscript in 2011.


And Now 25 copies of 29.1 are on sale for the low low price of $5.00 Order Here and be sure to mark which issue you are requesting in the "Description Box" 


-AS

Great Scott!

Today, I'd like to highlight Volume 25, Number 1 -- our 25th anniversary issue from Summer 2003. It features the likes of Sherman Alexie, Marilyn Chin, Stuart Dybek, Mark Halliday, Michael Martone, and Gary Soto. There's also an interview with poet Lucia Perillo. It's quite an impressive tome at 290 pages (that's almost a hundred more pages than our most recent issue!).

The following authors are also featured: 

Julianna Baggott – Her most recent novel, Which Brings Me to You, is a confessional co-written with Steve Almond, Lizzie Borden in Love: Poems in Women’s Voices, and, most recently, The Pretend Wife, written as Bridget Asher.

Mary Jo Bang – Her book Elegy came out in 2007 from Graywolf Press, and has gotten some great reviews. She was also published in the March 30, 2009 issue of the New Yorker (here). She received the Guggenheim fellowship in 2004.

 

Terrance Hayes – He has published two books of poetry since his publication in IR: the well-known and reviewed Wind in a Box and, in March of this year, Lighthead, both from Penguin. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2009.

Ray Gonzalez –After his publication in IR, he has published Human Crying Daisies, The Religion of Hands, and Consideration of the Guitar.

We've got 25 back issues for $5 each! Order here and be sure to mark "25.1" in the Comments field.

Back Issue Sale!!! Highlighting the past

For the rest of the month of June on the blog, we will be doing a bit of time traveling while simultaneously hosting a back issue sale extravaganza here on the blog. We'll be highlighting some past issues, tracking down a few authors, seeing what they have been up to recently, and marking down the prices of journals past so that we can all enjoy the good work done by writers of the years before.




Today's Spotlight.

Volume 27 Number 1, Summer 2005: Collaboration/Collage Issue

With work from John Ashbery, Oliver de la Paz, Nick Flynn, Kenneth Koch, Ander Monson, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Reginald Shepherd (just to name a few), this thick issue features work which was conceived and brought to the page by more than one artist. This is one of my favorite back issues to page through. It delves into memory, prom, censorship, and even into "Erotocosmic Premonitions" (poem by Denise Duhamel and Timothy Liu). It's a multi-genre issue running the gamut from short stories to comics, translations to eye-catching visual collages, stage plays to fill in the blanks and poetry with footnotes.

This wide range of work all poke and probe at the questions of juxtaposition, of how artists work with other artists to create new art and imagine more deeply.

But you don't gotta take my word for it! There are 25 back issues marked at half price ($5) waiting for good homes on your coffee table or nightstand. Order here. When ordering, be sure to specify which issue you would like to receive in the mail in the Comments field.