Some literary journals feel the need to designate special issues for select styles of poetry, but in Issue #14 of jubilat, you will find fabulous examples of a variety of styles of writing – narrative poems, lyrics, conceptual work, prose poems, essays and book reviews. You'll even find black-and-white artwork by Anni Albers and Amy Jean Porter. There’s something for everyone here (except for lovers of short fiction).
Among the poets featured in Issue 14 are Angela Ball, Mathias Svalina, Kevin Young and Kazim Ali. It’s refreshing to see the smoothness of Ali’s “The Ocean Floor”:
My supposed deafness fishes
from the water the sound of an orchestra
In which all the instruments play separately
from one another and out of tune.
fraternizing with the sass of Michael Leong’s “and I just stood there…”:
with my brain like a chambered nautilus
with my hands like drunken sailors
with my tongue like a headless jack-in-the-box
with my jugular like the Strait of Bosphorus
with my innards like a hall of mirrors
In the entertaining interview with Peter Gizzi, he not only discusses his collection The Ourternationale, he also elaborates on why he considers himself a “narrative poet” who’s “just narrating [his] bewilderment as a citizen.”
My favorite piece from this issue is Maggie Nelson’s essay “Abstract Practices: The Art of Joan Mitchell, Barbara Guest, and Their Others,” which was adapted from her book Women, the New York School and Other True Abstractions. In fact, I will keep this issue of jubilat on my shelf simply to retain that essay.
If you’re looking for a journal that covers the range of styles of contemporary poetry, as well as presenting interviews and essays on poetry/art/poetics, jubilat will not disappoint.
jubilat is published twice yearly at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A year’s subscription costs $14.00. You can find them online at http://www.jubilat.org.
