Craig Morgan Teicher

McSweeney's and Magnets: on lit mags part 2

Never afraid of innovative ideas and ways of making literature seem--God Forbid!--cool, if at times somewhat over-hipsterish (though the feat of making people want to read is so utterly commendable, that it's hard for me to be cynical about these folks), McSweeney's, with its beguiling 22nd issue, has, in fact, found a new--at least to me--way of presenting poetry. Not to mention a new way of presenting the issue itself, which is composed of three separate books held into a binding by magnets--an utterly fetishizable object.

Until recently, McSweeney's avoided publishing poetry, basically claiming they were not as expert in its wiles and ways as they were in fiction and nonfiction (they did just publish their first full-length book of poetry, Dean Young's Embryoyo). According to the introduction in the third of this issue's three books, a McSweeneey's summer intern named Dominic Luxford (whose name graces the poetry related part of the issue, called "The Poetry Chains of Dominic Luxford," and who has more recently assumed the newly-minted post of Poetry Editor for McSweeney's other print periodical, The Beliver) suggested the magazine buck up and do their duty: they should publish poetry. I couldn't agree more--poets too deserve the chance to bask in McSweeney's' lavish design, and lord knows we need all the opportunities we can get.

But what I admire most about McSweeney's' decision to feature poetry in this issue is the following, which I quote from the introduction to the poetry in the issue: "...Dominic...thought we should publish poetry too. We said we would if he could come up with a way of introducing poetry to those who rarely read it." Now, I am often rather snobby about the idea of getting poetry to the masses--I see nothing wrong with it being a bit hard to find, so you have to really want it--but, it being National Poetry Month, I also feel the good spirit of embassadorship. Again, I commend McSweeney's for making reading cool--I know a number of people who wouldn't really call themselves "readers" but who regularly buy, and read, anything McSweeney's--and it can only help the cause of poetry to get this kind of passionate attention.

So here is what they did. They asked ten poets who, once again according to the intro, "casual readers might know" (including Mark Doty, Dennis Johnson, C.D. Wright, and Mary Karr) to a contribute a poem of McSweeney's choosing, and then pick another of their own. Then, those poets were asked to pick a poem by another poet, who was then asked to pick a second poem by themselves and one by a third poet, and so on. Each chain is five poets long, and the whole issue contains fifty poets. If I haven't described it clearly, that's all the more reason to go and check out issue. Quickly, I should make a late disclosure: my wife is among the contributors, which, certainly, makes me a little biased. Nonetheless, it's an impressive and entertaining gathering of poems.

Here are the contributors in two of the chains, just so you can see what's what. Then I'll leave you be:

Yusef Komunyakaa--Tracy K. Smith--Tina Chang--Larissa Szporluk--Heidi Johannesen Poon

Mary Karr--Courney Queeny--Terrance Hayes--A. Van Jordan--Ruth Ellen Kocher

Posted by Craig Morgan Teicher on April 11, 2007 | Comments (0)