Volume 39, Issue 1
FRONT COVER: Fred Becker
THE BUS THAT FLEW ALONG FIFTH AV., 1937
From sepia photograph of scratchboard illustration
6 X 4.5 INCHES
Table of Contents
An Old Soldier, by Spencer Nadler
Mortal, a poem by Joyce Peseroff
Unspeakable Hunger, a story by Kamila Shamsie
Ode to the Air Traffic Controller; Peony, poems by Joshua Beckman
Oblivion, Nebraska, a story by Peter Love
Snakes; Cortege, poems by Eileen Myles
WITNESS: Hanging On, by Nancy McCabe
Great Moments in the History of Bagels, a story by Geoff Schmidt
Handling Fruit at a Calcutta Market, a poem by George Kalamaras
Introduction toFred Becker’s WPA Graphics, by Jules Chametzky; The WPA Federal Art Project, New York City:
A Reminiscence, by Fred Becker; with prints from New York City series, John Henry series, and Jazz series
Affirming Critical Conceptualism: Harlem Renaissance Aesthetics and the Formation of Alain Locke’s Social Philosophy, by Winston Napier
One Way the Herons Return, poems by David Williams
Ursa Major, a story by Andrew Lopenzina
Of Israel and the Language, a poem by Karen Alkalay-Gut
Contributors
Karen Alkalay-Gut teaches poetry at Tel Aviv University and is the author of three previous books, including Recipes: Love Soup and Other Poems.
Born in Oakland, CA, in 1913, Fred Becker was part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP) from 1935-39; his “John Henry’s Hand” and “Monsters” were the only WPA prints in MOMA’s landmark exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism in 1936. From 1968-86 he taught printmaking at the Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Joshua Beckman has published poetry in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, and the Works; his first full-length collection, Things Are Happening won APR‘s first annual Honnickman award, selected by Gerald Stern, and is due out in September.
Jules Chametzky, co-editor of MR and Professor Emeritus at the Univ. of Massachusetts, is an editor of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of Jewish American Literature.
Awarded a Fulbright fellowship to India, George Kalamaras has published two chapbooks of poetry, Heart Without End and Beneath the Breath; a poem of his appeared in The Best American Poetry, 1997.
Andrew Lopenzina lives in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts where he raises his children, chops wood, and works when he is not writing.
Peter Love has published fiction in The American Literary Review and North Carolina Review, among other places. A resident of Hell’s Kitchen, New York, he has just finished a novel.
Nancy McCabe received her MFA from the University of Arkansas and is currently working on a novel.
Eileen Myles‘s most recent book of poems is School of Fish; in 1992 she ran for President as an “openly female” write-in candidate in twenty eight states.
Spencer Nadler was born in Canada and has practiced surgical pathology in the Los Angeles area for 25 years; previous work has appeared in Harper’s.
Currently a professor of African American Literature at Clark University, Winston Napier has published essays on Houston Baker, Madelyn Jablon, and the Howard Poets.
Joyce Peseroff‘s most recent book of poems is A Dog in the Lifeboat. She is Visiting Professor and Writer-in Residence at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Geoff Schmidt received his MFA from the University of Alabama; stories of his have been published or are forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, The Crab Orchard Review, and The Alaska Quarterly Review, and he has several times been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Kamila Shamsie was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and is an MFA candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her first novel, In the City by the Sea, is forthcoming from Granta Books.
David Williams‘s collection of poems is titled Traveling Mercies.