Synopsis:
A collection of notable works from a variety of small presses
Reviews:
YA-- An eclectic collection gathered from U. S. small presses. Publications such as Ploughshares , Tribe: An American Gay Journal , The Paris Review , and The Literary Review nominated the selections included in this outstanding anthology. Topics vary in scope and range from family relationships to ecology to sexual experimentation to torture and death. No topic is off-limits, and points of view are as different as the contributors. Many are thoughtful and provide unique insights into everyday problems. Unfortunately, some of the black-and-white photographs and line drawings are very dark with indistinguishable detail. The introduction warns,``don't expect to like everything in here.'' That is true. Some of the ideas are shocking; others may be offensive. There is, however, something here for everyone. The writing is uniformly excellent and the authors' viewpoints are from the heart: there is a lot of emotion in these pages. All of these contributions are guaranteed to make readers think and question.
- Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MD-
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A strong anthology, selected from over 3,000 nominations made by the editors of 364 literary magazines and small presses, of challenging and generally first-rate stories, poems, and illustrations (photos, art work). The 88 contributors include William S. Burroughs (``Where He Was Going,'' a short story from Cherry Valley Editions); Tom Disch (``Crumbling Infrastructure,'' a poem from Southwest Review); W.P. Kinsella (``The Dixon Cornbelt League,'' a story from Baseball History); James Harrison (a drawing/collage from Poetry East); Amira Baraka, Gregory Corso, Grace Paley, Czeslaw Milosz, Paul Bowles, and a host of lesser- knowns. All the works were originally published between 1984 and 1990 (the first two Editor's Choice volumes spanned 1965-83). Henceforth, the series will appear every two years--a biennial treat to look forward to as editor Sklar, founder of The Spirit That Moves Us Press, performs the invaluable service, similar to that performed by Bill Henderson and his Pushcart Prize anthologies, of intelligently and diligently combing the American literary landscape for those gems too easily overlooked in this age of megapublishing ventures. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
More than 80 poems, stories, and artworks are gathered here from magazines with names like Artful Dodge , Lips , Gargoyle , Heaven Bone , and Rohwedder . True to its small-press spirit, this anthology was assembled in libraries and fast-food joints--"anywhere," says the editor, "they wouldn't throw me out after five or six hours." In one poem, Al Zolynas's "Love in the Classroom," the speaker is a teacher of English as a Second Language trying to explain sentence fragments to his polyglot class. He longs to tell them that "Everything's/ a fragment and everything's not a fragment"; alas, he loses his nerve and sticks to the lesson plan. Editor Sklar is considerably braver than that, and the result of his risk taking (as well as his patience, of course) is an uncommonly rich anthology that captures both the diversity of the American cultural mosaic and its oneness. Highly recommended.
- David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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