Toad Suck Review: The Transitional Issue

Magazine. Poetry. Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Translations. Reviews. Art. The historic EXQUISITE CORPSE ANNUAL has gone bust and the TOAD SUCK REVIEW has stepped up to take its place! Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Xaviera Hollander, Jack Hirschman, Antler and Lyn Lifshin take it to the streets! Also included: C.D. Wright, Mike Topp, Teresa Bergen, Jack Collom, Michael Myron, Leticia Luna, Jose Beduya, David Gessner, Marck Beggs, Kevin Brockmeier, William Lychack, Willie Smith, Jacques Prévert, Daniel Grandbois, and a legion host of brand new blood! This is cutting-edge literary history disguised as an annual anthology of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, artwork, translations, and reviews!

Hear Ye! Hear ye! The Exquisite Corpse Annual has been transformed into the Toad Suck Review, edited by the inimitable Mark Spitzer. The 21st century is here. Read high-octane poetics by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Antler, Jacques Prévert (translated by Norman R. Shapiro), & Lyn Lifshin, fiction by Xavier Hollander, & posterior-booting book reviews by David X. Machina, Kelvin Krill, & Mr. Stir Fry. There s artwork. There s a Zetabet of Creative Writing creatively written by Stephanie Vanderslice, Anna Leahy, & Cathy Day. And lots, lots more. The Toad Suck Review is 144 pages (one gross) of wild literary adventure, served up in the traditional Exquisite Corpse manner tall, skinny, & perfect-bound. Sounds almost kinky. A copy will run you a mere $15. Paypal payments can be sent toadsuckreview@gmail.com, or make a check out to UCA & send to Toad Suck Review, Dept. of Writing, UCA, Conway, Arkansas, 72035. Check out the website at toadsuckreview.org. Seriously, this is exciting stuff. --Barbaric Yawp

Well, I ll definitely give The Toad Suck Review an A for Enthusiasm. This elongated journal is published out of the Department of Writing in the College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Central Arkansas by staffers who, if nothing else, are wildly engrossed in their field of literature. The editor s note at the beginning explains that this is the transitional issue from the mythopoetic Exquisite Corpse Annual to the more fiction-based Toad Suck Review: We are born from the Corpse, whose experimental sense of humor and international enquiries will always inform our quirky aesthetics. Now they are inviting in the mainstream to participate and submit. I have never felt more square than while reading Toad Suck Review. I picture the editors as a band of literary misfits-cum-professors, who choose submissions around a table covered in steaming mugs of tea and discarded arm jangles. Perhaps if I had donned more scarves then I could understand some of the disjointed poetics and quirky sense of humor that so often eluded me in this journal. Even the name is defiant. Toad Suck is apparently a moniker for the region of Central Arkansas, but is also an intentional nod to the journal s fiercely-guarded love of the weird. Which is why there is also something loveable about The Toad Suck Review. It is utterly unpretentious, or perhaps pretentious in such a bubbling and bumbling way that it makes it seem unpretentious. The editors truly want to help writers succeed, to publish people who are expressing themselves, to both teach and learn at every opportunity. Plus they harbor an amusingly strong passion for Arkansas and its literary scene (that I confess, until now, I did not know existed). This journal is about community, even for those on the social margins. Toad Suck is confusingly, loveably, unabashedly different and sometimes that s refreshing. Toad Suck is divided into sections, beginning at Manifesto Introductus , which is Suck-speak for Editor s Note . The next section is entitled High Octane Poetics and begins with Cristo & Socrates by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. According to his bio in the back of the journal, this author is a legend, however his script-like piece comprised primarily of wisecracks and cheap puns neither advanced my conception of the philosophical relationship between Socrates and Jesus nor did it make me laugh. I enjoyed Mike Topp s Lilliputianless Poems , though I m not sure if his random punch lines necessarily count as poetry. Antler s Extraterrestrial Extrapolations explore the wonders of the scientific and physical world. However, these too seem more like the scribbled rant of a hyperactive science nerd than poetry. So does Perrin Carrell s Super-Cooled Quantum Blog Poems , though I liked those too. Jack Collom s Cold Instances included a set of word and image poetry whose purpose or message was so obscure as to be completely devoid of meaning. Same with Alice Notley s Seamless Poem . Though I recognize that both of these authors use atypical visualization of their poetry, I could not manage to find any higher purpose in their writing. The section From the Blood comes next and I actually gleaned something from the poems of its two contributers translated works by Toshiya Kamei and a long set of original short poems by Jose Perez Beduya. The Artists in Residence section included a lovely interview and environmental piece called Beyond Flipper by David Gessner, founder of the UNC Wilmington journal Ecotone. Gessner s story describes his loneliness and alienation after moving South and the unexpected companionship he found in the South Carolina dolphins. The whole thing reads like a gulp of fresh air because it makes sense. etc... --The Review Review