Luna Digest, 9/22

First, has anyone been paying attention to Fairy Tale Review of late? Somehow the magazine’s new press has quietly become one of the best things going; their third book, Lily Hoang‘s Changing, just won the 2009 PEN/Beyond Margins Award. This isn’t actually so shocking—even for such a new press—if one considers the consistently great writing already being published by the magazine, which includes work by Jedediah Berry, Arielle Greenberg, Kim Addonizio, Tracy Daugherty, Rikki Ducornet, Joyelle McSweeney, Stacey Richter & etc.

Esopus magazine—the super-high-production-quality art & literary periodical from NYC—has published online several pieces from back issues for your free perusal. For example, check out this Flash presentation of Suji Kwock Kim’s “22 Drafts of the Poem ‘Generation’” from Esopus 6. And possibly even better: They are offering full-length streaming tracks from all of their sold-out back issues. Tracks by Kimya Dawson, The Mountain Goats, The New Year, Devendra Banhart, Grizzly Bear, The Earlies, you get the picture.

Kyoto Journal talks story with Maxine Hong Kingston.

Way cool: African Cities Reader, from Chimurenga magazine.

There is always a new border to push in the literary magazine world, or, in this case, the literary blog world. The New Post Literate: A Gallery of Asemic Writing publishes asemic writing, or writing with “no specific semantic content.” Yep. (Example at right is from work by Nico Vassilakis.)

Dave Housley, “one fifth of the Barrelhouse Editorial Squadron,” would like a word:

I’m writing to let you know (and, obviously, see if you’d be interested in posting something) that we have a whole lot of stuff going on right now. We just relaunched our site, and also launched a new online issue, with work from Kevin Wilson, Molly Gaudry, Sean Lovelace, Tara Laskowski, and Kevin Winchester. We also have a Patrick Swayze tribute up right now—for the past five years, we’ve ended every interview with the question “what’s your favorite Patrick Swayze movie?” We’ve put all the responses online, including some writers (Chuck Klosterman, Malcolm Gladwell), Barrelhouse contributors and friends (Dan Wickett, Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Matt Bell), and pop culture people (the Hold Steady, Patterson Hood, Ian MacKaye).

The Fall 2009 issue of The Paris Review just hit the stands containing a new story by Richard Powers, which is—and I quote—“set in a future in which man’s existence has been reduced to the view from his whole-body browser.” Body = Internet Explorer. Here’s a line from the story: “Nothing the boy remembers about the book will ever match anything produced by any search engine.”

There’s also new work in the issue from Sam Shepard, a series of stories called “Four Days.” From the beginning:

“We stop in a place called Smith’s in Paso Robles and order turkey-gumbo soup and lemon-meringue pie with black coffee. This ensemble somehow fits together although it sounds as though the tastes might clash. The theme from The Godfather is playing on the jukebox; very dreary and always reminds me of that shocking scene with the decapitated horse head. What goes on in Coppola’s mind? How could a guy come up with that? You must have to be Italian.”

Finally, in an email from editor Rhett Iseman Trull a few months ago (before Ben Vernanke declared an end to the recession), Cave Wall asks for your support (and, of course, the magazine is not alone):

There has never been a better time to subscribe to Cave Wall than this month, during our September 2009 Back Issue Sale, where current and new subscribers can purchase back issues 1-5 for just $4 each. If you have been wanting to subscribe, or if your subscription has lapsed and you missed a few issues, now is a great time to act. Also, with the holidays approaching, what better gift for a poetry lover than a complete set of Cave Wall back issues? In these difficult economic times, Cave Wall appreciates your support more than ever.

Every Tuesday, Travis Kurowski presents Luna Digest, a selection of news from the world of literary magazines. Travis is the editor of Luna Park, a magazine founded on the idea that journals are as deserving of critical attention as other artistic works.