Teen Angst Poetry

I am a big fan of bad poetry. And bad writing in general. Then again, that should be apparent from my appreciation of campy movies (see post from October).

One of my favorite sources for reading bad poems is TeenAngstPoetry.com, where sadly misguided efforts (though they felt right at the time) are submitted by their now grown up writers. Very funny stuff. And you can find everything organized into thematic categories like "I Am Alone and No One Understands My Pain" and "Obvious Metaphors."

My favorite Obvious Metaphor poem that they once posted is this little ditty from a contributor named Arran (from age 16):

Coleslaw Girl

I am the coleslaw girl
everything about me
is shredded.

I used to be whole
where did I go
to become this mess?

I am the coleslaw girl
grated & ripped apart
loosing my mind.



***

If anyone reading this wants to share a short poem, or line, from a teen angst riddled voice, I'd love to read it.

-danny

A shiny new book!

Former Indiana Review editor Danit Brown has a book forthcoming from Pantheon. The collection of stories is titled Ask for a Convertible. We can't wait to get our grubby little hands on a copy!

Indiana Review on the Radio Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night (Wednesday, December 5) at 7:30 p.m., the Indiana Review senior editors--Abdel, Jenny, Danny, and Hannah--will be guests on the WIUX Creative Writing show. We'll be talking a bit about our upcoming issue, 29.2, and reading some selections from it--exciting new work.

Tune in if you're in Bloomington at 99.1 FM. And if you aren't, hear the broadcast streaming over the web at wiux.org.

Laura van den berg: Winner!

Indiana Review 29.1 contributor, Laura van den berg has been named winner of the 2007 Dzanc prize. The prize awards $5,000 annually to a writer who is interested in bettering their community through literary community service, and who is working toward completion of a novel or short story collection. Laura's working on a project to teach creative writing in local prisons. Sounds pretty daggone cool.

Check out Laura reading her story, Where We Must Be, on our Bluecast.

Best New Poets 2007 is Here!

A brand new shiny copy of Best New Poets 2007 arrived in our office this week with Tyler Mills' poem "The Violin Shop" right there on page 50. We're proud to have printed that poem in this summer's issue, 29.1, and even prouder that it was included in BNP! Way to go Tyler!

And it has a delightful new book smell...

The collection can be purchased from University of Virginia Press.


So I was curious about who the guy on the cover was. Turns out, according to their blog, all their cover photos are stock photos! Weird. Something about the cover design definitely led me to believe the person on the front is one of the poets included in the collection, or at the very least, one of last year's poets. Hmm...

Oh well. It still looks like a great collection!

--Hannah

Cover Me!

Who doesn't judge a book by it's cover? Joseph Sullivan has compiled a list of the most compelling covers of 2007 over at the NY Times blog.

can you do this in a poem?

Many people wonder how exactly we decide what to publish. What do we look for in a poem? What quality makes one piece of art leap out of the slush pile and into the magazine, while others quietly pass on to other hands, other venues?











This snowman, an image of the Hindu god Ganesh, was created on the main street in Mussoorie, India, a town in the Himalayan foothills. Out of the slush...art.

Now do this. But in a poem.

--Hannah