TABLE OF CONTENTS
50th Anniversary Issue
Walter Cummins
Editor’s Letter
It may seem contradictory that an international journal of contemporary writing culminates its 50th anniversary year with an issue focusing on New Jersey. But consider it an homage to our origins and a celebration of the state’s literary role… read the full letter here.
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Martin Green
The Literary Review and Its Founders
Since the first decade, The Literary Review has published 100 issues–half the 200 product in its fifty-year history–that present translations from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia as it fulfills its mission as an international journal of contemporary writing…
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WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
William Carlos Williams
From My Notes About My Mother
Her observation seems to have been minute and dispassionate and, so far as her condition and surroundings were concerned, comprehensive, if not philosophical or profound as the meanderings of a childish intelligence sometimes will be. She saw and tasted everything with relish at least, and respected the truth…
Two Sentimental Little Poems
The flower
fallen
a pink petal
intact on the ground…
Letters from William Carlos Williams to Charles Angoff and Clarence Decker
It is a tribute that I shall long remember that you and the other editors have dedicated the first issue to me. I thank you for your good feeling…
Michael Anania
From “Garden Pieces” in Heat Lines
not wild carrot
this far West,
Wild Bill…
Herbert Liebowitz
“Halfway to Hell”: William Carlos Williams’ Kora in Hell
Renouncing most of his poetic inheritance–“Confute the sages,” he exhorts himself–Williams started over with huge ambition but no plan and only the scraps of a new faith to sustain him: “A poem can be made of anything.”…
René Steinke
William Carlos Williams and the Baroness Elsa von frcytag-Loringhoven
A German émigré, fashion avatar, poet, collagist, troublemaker, and perhaps the first American performance artist, the Baroness was one of those wildly flowering bohemians in the Greenwich Village hothouse of the lat 1910s and early 1920s, most of whom are now lost to history…
Baroness Elsa van Freytag Loringhoven
Excerpt from “Thee I Call Hamlet of the Wedding-Ring” Criticism of William Carlos William’s (sic) “Kora in Hell and Why … Part I”
Not to be sentimental–of that you are fearfully–too afraid
to escape suspicion–flaunt brazen cloak of inexperience right side out
lining sentimentality…
Stephen Hahn
“It was … Civilization I was after”: George Tice, William Carlos Williams, and The Archaeology of Paterson
…the photographer is the epitome of patience, especially when equipped with a heavy, large format camera, waiting for an image to emerge under conditions of light and shadow that reveal both a fact of the place and an esthetic intention…
J.P. Seaton
Traduttore
It is an old story…the persistent acolyte may become a protégé even without the active protection or promotion by the mater. Williams was gentle: Wang, for all his harebrained and even hateful enthusiasms, was attractive, charming, and not without talent…
Mark Hillringhouse
The Williams Center Centennial
I never expected that on the day of the centennial over five hundred people would pay to hear poetry. In fact, three hundred had to be turned away…
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NEA WRITERS
C.K. Williams
All But Always
Apes
Late
Steen
Teachers
In the Louvre, Jan Steen:
wild goings-on in a tavern,
in the near left corner of which
a man in a red artists’ hat
has his hand on one breast
of a woman nursing a two
or so year old at the other…
Amity Gaige
Villanelle
Like the word “enough:” he just can’t ever spell it right no matter what context it’s in. And feelings keep coming back, too. Okayness gets busted up by being mad or by love. Love. Staring at her and wanting to pull the corners of her mouth…
Susan Wheeler
From The Slip
Spangled like showgirls in the gleam of our fears,
shiny like Christians in chain mail, with our faux-lizard shingling,
whores limping to West Street from the Bank Street pier,
we were wed in the chapel…
Will Eno
Walking Tour, an excerpt from the play Middletown
…Here we are. Forget everything you were going to tell us. I understand why you’d think we’re just yahoos on vacation. But, we’re serious people…
Rubem Fonseca
The Book of Panegyrics
Translated by Clifford E. Landers
The old man knew he would genuinely repent after annihilating his enemies and that he would die redeemed, ready to face whatever came after death…
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NEW JERSEY WRITERS
Yael Goldstein
Tastes Like Regular
She heard the past drip inside the present and a dark slab of beef, browned tender and slightly bitter by vinegar and raspberries, was made manifest above a bank of washing machines…
Michael Lee
The Devil in Norman Mailer
…if you want to think of a novelist as being criminal in that they offer you a version of reality that may or may not exist, they do play a slight of hand with reality, then by all means, I don’t like a novel that cuts too many corners…
Ann Minoff
Burgess
Before his eyes fell shut, Willy smelled the cold, the rain roaring over their heads. Everyone fell into a dreamless sleep like the dark of night it was…
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NEW JERSEY POETS
Renée Ashley
Sampling the Galaxy: Poets and Poetry in New Jersey
No one writes in a vacuum–we’re human in a particular place in a particular time, and still the poetry wears a lot of different faces, sings myriad different songs, has different hosannas as well as complaints, and often never mentions New Jersey itself at all…
Laura Boss
Visiting Saint Elizabeth’s
My son roams these rooms in his locked unit, this same brick building
where Ezra Pound years ago perhaps paced these same rooms…
Constance Quarterman Bridges
An Interview with Eve After Eden
What do you want of me?
I’m not certain where I live,
or how I got on this barren road…
Robert Carnevale
Nativity
I could say all that happened
was a simple division of labor:
one couple doing the sowing
and another doing the reaping…
Barbara Daniels
Foxgloves
What’s in the crow’s claws?
Dark shape, starling’s fledgling
turned into meat. Rain falls
again, as it did all spring…
Catherine Doty
Gorillas
He held his head in his hands and wept into it. No window
gave back his image; he’d smashed them all…
Kathleen Graber
Un Chien Andalou
I ride the train, after not having ridden the train in long while. Outside,
another deserted warehouse district…
Kate Greenstreet
From The Last 4 Things
They’re taking the boats out of the water.
The sound of time passing the old notes…
Lois Marie Harrod
Summer Storm
Green wail of trees, a woman dress flailing up her
growing thighs, the old drunk next door knocking up
his dark wife, my mother whispers to my dad, claps her
hands over my ears, don’t listen, she says…
Paul Lisicky
The Night in Question
The rising seas, the bulldog dean: nothing bothered me tonight. My
mother’s mind, shifting like water; my murderous student, Mr. Greasy:
Son of Unibomber…
Timothy Liu
A Rose at His Door
Did you? I did. You’re married. I’d
forgotten…
Doc Long
Zero
I was sitting in the barbershop when
A man rushed in announcing and proclaiming
He had found a number that was not a number
He had found it beneath the pillow where
Possibility slept…
Peter E. Murphy
Llywelyn’s Dog
Gary trudges up the valley toward
the end of the world. The grey sky is full,
not with clouds, but with boulders…
Benjamin Paloff
Seneca on Crowds
I’m always arriving too late to see the dressed-down general
on his rocket-drawn chariot…
Patrick Rosal
To the Young Man Who Jumped into the Hudson to Retrieve a Backpack Full of His Poems
Whereas you searched for the word in the sword of the river that finally
called you
Whereas the river should have outlived you (anyway) by less…
Christine E. Salvatore
Spare
To get along
without,
meager, scant
as in live on spare rations;
to give up possession of,
part with
as in able to spare a cup of sugar…
Barry Seiler
Leaving the Port
On the Trailways the kid marine
Shifts and snores.
One of us will shake him in Kingston
So he can catch the Albany line…
Shanxing Wang
From “Thus Speaks the Poet-in-Residence”
Sorry, the plot she talks about simply won’t work. There are 10,000
truths strained and translated, palimpsest, avant-grades, spiritual units,
grain boundary paroles. There’re going to be 12,000 strained and translated
by the end of of this yoga session…
BJ Ward
17 Becomes 43
Whatever happened to Hills Diner?
What became of the sugar
shaker we’d pass around the booth,
a baton our tongues were racing with?…
Gretna Wilkinson
Down by the River
Week after week I come
to my best friendly rock
at the edge of this water
pound dirt out of clothes
frustrations out of me…
Paul-Victor Winters
The Aerialists Former Fiancée
Later, when buddies ask, he might say it was over
before it began, might even admit that he got lonely
when she was on the road, that the thought of men
in far-away towns peeping up her sequined
miniskirt troubled him just a little.,,
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EDITORS’ CHOICES
Renée Ashley
David Tucker, Late for Work
…Tucker manages wonderfully one of the most difficult jobs as a poet can do: he addresses his audience in clear, accessible language, actually says something both interesting and meaningful, and maintains the kind of delicious mystery that keeps us going back to a poem for more…
Laura van den Berg
Amity Gaige, The Folded World
…her craftsmanship and inspired language elevate the novel, a unique and well-observed work that examines why people risk what they love most in the (sometimes misguided) pursuit of a meaningful life…
Kathleen Graber
Kate Greenstreet, case sensitive
…as with any good, dark tale, there is an undercurrent of solitude and danger. What attracts us isn’t always safe; to hope for real communication demands genuine risk…
Duff Brenna
Thomas E. Kennedy, Cast Upon The Day
At times Kennedy’s stories sear the guilty heart and remind us of the myriad ways we can go either towards a larger life or lemming-like, plunge into failure and self-flagellation…
Janet McCann
Diane Lockward, What Feeds Us
These are poems about the subtleties of nourishment–and about the elemental force of it, the need for it, the various direct and indirect ways we get it. Lush with fruits and the most sensuous of vegetables, the poems provide a feast…
James Michael Slama
Duff Brenna, The Book of Mamie
Duff Brenna’s The Book of Mamie reminds us of why we read. It asks meaningful questions about the human condition while at the same time, it entertains…
Miles Newbold Clark
Joshua Cohen, Cadenza For the Schneidennann Violin Concerto
Cohen is an observer not of human beings, but of the ideas that human beings have surrounded themselves inside: “Good evening, Mr. President of this house soon to fall. Take a seat, you own them all.”…
Kevin Carey
Maria Mazziotti Gillan, All That Lies Between Us
Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s new book, All That Lies Between Us, is a collection of poems that reminds us of what it is to be human, the truth about memory, the constant cycle of discovery, the pain and the redemption, the necessary suffering…
J.C. Todd
Kathleen Graber, Correspondence
Correspondence is a restless meditation on the necessity of the work of art, not the artifact but its making, the aesthetic effort in which the artist becomes conscious of her passage through the flux of self and world…
James Owen Weatherall
Yale Goldstein, Overture
…Yael Goldstein navigates this difficult landscape–between interpretation and intent; dominance and individuality–with aplomb…
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CONTRIBUTORS
Michael Anania‘s most recent book is Continuous Showings from early 2017. He has contributed poems to The Literary Review four times and one of his books was reviewed in the magazine. Most recently, he contributed his poem “Cinema Universale” in the Memory issue from Winter 2008. For more, visit Michael’s website.
Renée Ashley is the author of six volumes of poetry, her most recent being The View from the Body. You can find more of her work on her website. Her poetry, reviews and essays have been published in The Literary Review 19 times and three of her books have been reviewed in the magazine. Most recently, she reviewed Shara Lessley’s Two-Headed Nightingale in the Invisible Cities issue of Spring 2013. She was Poetry Editor of TLR from 2010-2015.
Laura Boss is the founder and editor of Lips. Along with her most recent poetry collection, The Best Lover, her work can be found here. Her poem “Visiting Saint Elizabeth’s” can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Duff Brenna is the author of ten books, including a winner of the AWP Award for Best novel. His most recent publication is Steve Kowit: This Unspeakably Marvelous Life. His poems, essays, fiction and reviews have been published seven times and two of his works have been reviewed in The Literary Review. His most recent contribution is a short story, “Annette’s Work In Progress” in the Machismo: A Field Guide of Winter 2010.
Constance Quarterman Bridges’ most recent book, Lions Don’t Eat Us, was a winner of the 2005 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Along with being published in many magazines and anthologies, she has won two New Jersey state fellowships. Her poem “An Interview with Eve After Eden” can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Kevin Carey is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Salem State University. Along with being a published author of three books, he is a screenwriter and a filmmaker. You can read more here. His most recent collection of poetry, Jesus Was a Homeboy, won the 2017 Paterson Poetry Prize. His reviews and essays have been published in The Literary Review three times. Most recently, he has reviewed Maria Mazziotti Gillen’s All Lies Between Us in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Robert Carnevale‘s poems have appeared in the Paris Review, The New Yorker and other magazines and anthology. His co-translations have been published through The Kenyon Review, Agni, and Poetry Daily. For six years, he was the Assistant Coordinator for the Dodge Poetry Program. Born in Italy and raised in Paterson, NJ, he now teaches graduate school at Drew University and in the college at Kean University. He has contributed poems to The Literary Review twice. His most recent poems, “Woodgrain,” “Snow on Snow,” and “Nothing To Say” can be found in the How To Read Music issue of Spring 2010.
Miles Newbold Clark’s first novel, None Of That Will Do. Now What? was recently published from No Record Press. His review of Joshua Cohen’s Cadenza for the Schniedermann Violin Concerto can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Barbara Daniels’ most recent book Rose Fever was published in 2008 by WordTech Press. Her poem “Foxgloves” can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Catherine Doty is the author of Momentum from Cavankerry Press. She has also published a volume of poetry and a collection of cartoons. She has contributed her poetry three times and had a book reviewed in The Literary Review. Her most recent contributions were the poems, “The First Time I Was Told to Fuck Myself,” “Breathing Under Water,” “Behind Bars,” and “Sweet Ants” in the Therapy! issue of Fall 2009.
Will Eno is a playwright and his most recent play Wakey, Wakey premiered in New York in February 2017. He has been awarded several fellowships and awards for his plays. “Walking Tour”, an excerpt from his play Middletown can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Ruben Fonseca is a Brazilian writer who has published ten novels and fifteen story collections that have appeared in a number of publications and magazines. His most recent book, The Lost Manuscript was published in 1998. He has contributed his fiction four times to The Literary Review. His most recent contribution was the short story “The Taker” in the New Poetry. Original Fiction. Award-winning Translations in Fall 2008.
Amity Gaige has published three novels, her most recent being Schroder. She has won a number of awards and fellowships, which you can read more about on her website here. has been reviewed in and contributed her fiction to The Literary Review. Her interview with Adam Haslett can be found in the Machismo: A Field Guide issue of Winter 2010.
Yael Goldstein Love is the author of the novel Overture. With her counseling psychology degree from Harvard, she now works with clients as an editor and writing coach and lives in Berkeley, California. You can read more here. In the 50th Anniversary issue, she contributed her short story, “Tastes Like Regular,” and her book Overture was reviewed by James Owen Weatherhall.
Kathleen Graber’s most recent poetry collection, The Eternal City, was published in 2010. You can learn more here about her and her number of awards and fellowships. She has contributed her poems and reviews five times and has been reviewed in The Literary Review. Most recently, her poem “The Weight,” can be found in the “Do You Love Me?” issue of Spring 2015.
Martin Green was the former Editor-in-Chief of The Literary Review and is now on the Editorial Board for the magazine. He has contributed his reviews and essays seven times to The Literary Review. Most recently, his review of Perry Meisel’s The Myth of the Modern: A Study in British Literature and Criticism After 1850 in the Spring 1990 issue.
Kate Greenstreet has published four books, her most recent being End of Something published at the beginning of December 2017. You can visit her online and read about her interviews, poems and future events. A poem from her book The Last 4 Things and a review of her book case sensitive can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Stephen Hahn is a Professor of English at William Paterson University. He has published books and essays on Williams, Faulkner, Thoreau and other writers. His essay “‘It was…civilization I was after’: George Tice, William Carlos Williams, and the Archeology of Paterson” can be found in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Lois Marie Harrod’s most recent collection of poetry, Nightmares of a Minor Poet, was published in 2016. She has been awarded three fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts. You can read more about her online. She has contributed her poems ten times to The Literary Review. Most recently, her poem “Fences Tight to the Ditches” was published in the Heaven issue of Summer 2016.
Mark Hillringhouse is a photographer and a writer. His work has appeared in the Paris Review, The New York Times, the New Jersey Monthly and elsewhere. His most recent book was a collection of poems and photographs, Between Frames, that was published in 2016. He has been awarded a number of poetry fellowships and you can read more about him here. He has contributed his reviews and essays ten times to The Literary Review. Most recently, his review of Gustaf Sobin’s Collected Poems was published in the Refrigerator Mothers issue of Fall 2010.
Clifford E. Landers, along with his numerous Fonseca translations, has translated other many other Brazilian writers. He was awarded the Mario Ferreira Award in 1999 and a Prose Translation grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. He has contributed his translations four times to The Literary Review. He most recently contributed his translation of Ruben Fonseca’s short story “The Taker” to the New Poetry. Original Fiction. Award-winning Translations issue in Fall 2008.
Michael Lee is the literary editor of The Cape Cod Voice. His most recent publication is a collection of essays In An Elevator with Brigitte Bardot. His short story “The Devil in Norman Mailer” can be found in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Herbert Leibowitz is the editor of Parnassus: Poetry in Review. Along with winning a number of awards, he has published four books. His most recent book is “Something Urgent I Have to Say to You”: The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams. His essay “‘Halfway to Hell’: William Carlos Williams’ Kora in Hell” can be found in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Paul Lisicky, along with five published books, has work appeared in The New Yorker, Buzzfeed, The Atlantic, Fence, Ploughshares and others. He has taught at a number of universities and has received a number of fellowships and awards. You can learn more about him online. His poem “The Night in Question” can be found in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Timothy Liu is the author of a number of poetry collections, most recently Kingdom Come: A Fantasia. he lives in Manhattan after having done significant time in Hoboken. You can read more about him on his website. His poem “A Rose at His Door” can be found in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Doc Long’s work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. He studied fiction and poetry writing in Asheville, North Carolina. He is also affiliated with the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Program. His poem “Zero” can be found in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Janet McCann’s most recent collection of poems is The Crone at the Casino (2014). Her poems and reviews have been published three times in The Literary Review. Most recently, her review of Diane Lockward’s What Feeds Us was published in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Ann Minoff’s work is forthcoming or has been published in The Alembic, Amarillo Bay, Blood Lotus, California Quarterly, The Chaffin Journal, The Distillery, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Emprise Review, Harpur Palate, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, The Literary Review, Lullwater Review, Nimrod, Pearl, Porcupine, Quiddity Literary Journal, Sacred Journey: Journal of Fellowship in Prayer, and Spoon River Poetry Review. Her short story “Burgess” can be found in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Peter E. Murphy is the author of seven books and chapbooks. Most recently, Challenges for the Delusional, a book of poetry writing prompts, was published in 2012. He has contributed his poetry three times to The Literary Review. His poems “Aspirin,” “Federal Reserve,” and “To Kill an Albatross” were recently in the The Worst Team Money Could Buy issue of Summer 2010.
Benjamin Paloff is a Professor at the University of Michigan. His most recent book is And His Orchestra: Poems (2015). He has contributed his poetry and translations five times to The Literary Review. His translation of Kryzysztof Jaworski’s poem “Don Quixote Meets Mussolini and Explains How There Isn’t Much Point in Fixing the World” in the The Rogue Idea issue of Winter 2011.
Patrick Rosal was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. He is the author of four books of poetry, his most recent collection, Brooklyn Antediluvian (2016). For more, visit his website. He contributed his poetry twice to The Literary Review. His poem “To the Young Man who Jumped into the Hudson to Receive a Backpack Full of his Poems” was published in the 50th Anniversary Issue.
Christine E. Salvatore websiteis a Professor at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Egg Harbor Township High School and is in the MFA Program at Rosemont College. For more, visit her . Her poem “Spare” was published in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Barry Seiler’s most recent book, Frozen Falls, is a collection of poems published in 2001. He has contributed his poetry four times to The Literary Review. His poem “Leaving the Port” was published in the 50th Anniversary issue.
James Michael Slama’s reviews have been published three times in The Literary Review. Most recently, his review of Alain Mabanckou’s African Psycho appears in the Pen Translation Fund Grant Recipients issue of Fall 2007. He passed away in 2017.
J.P. Seaton‘s most recent translation is Bright Moon, White Clouds: Selected Poems of Li Po (2012). Read more here. His translations and essays have appeared in The Literary Review six times. Most recently, he contributed to “A Selection of Classical and Modern Chinese Poetry in Translation” with various translators in the Nine Chapbooks issue of Summer 2008.
René Steinke is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow and the Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her most recent book is the novel Friendswood (2015). Read more here. She has contributed her essays and fiction six times to The Literary Review. Her most recent contribution is the short story “Walser On Fire” in the Street Cred issue of Summer 2015.
J.C. Todd’s most recent book is a collection of poems titled What Space This Body (2008). Two of her reviews have appeared in The Literary Review. Her most recent contribution was a review of Bruce MacKinnon’s Mystery Schools in the New Poetry. Original Fiction. Award-winning Translations in Fall 2008.
Laura van den Berg has published two collections of stories and her work has appeared in a number of anthologies. Her most recent novel is Find Me (2016). For more, check out her website. She has contributed her reviews and fiction three times to The Literary Review. Most recently, her short story “Still Life with Poppies” appears in the Memory issue of Winter 2008.
Shanxing Wang‘s book of poems, Mad Science in Imperial City, was published in 2005. An excerpt from “Thus Speaks the Poet-in-Residence” was published in the 50th Anniversary issue.
BJ Ward’s most recent collection of poems is Jackleg Opera (2013). For more, check out his website. His poem “17 Becomes 43” appears in the 50th Anniversary issue.
James Own Weatherall is a physicist and philosopher. His most recent book is Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing (2016). To learn more, visit his website. His reviews have appeared in The Literary Review twice. Most recently, his reviews of Yael Goldstein’s Overture was published in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Susan Wheeler is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Professor at Princeton University. She is the author of a novel and six books of poetry. Her most recent book of poems, Meme, was published in 2012. To learn more, visit her website. She has contributed her poetry twice to The Literary Review. An excerpt from The Slip appears in the 50th Anniversary issue.
Gretna Wilkinson’s most recent book of poems is a book called Opening the Drawer from 2011. Her poem “Down by the River” appears in the 50th Anniversary issue.
C.K. Williams has published several books of poetry. His most recent being All At Once from 2014. To learn more, visit his website. His poems, “All But Always,” “Apes,” “Late,” “Steen,” and “Teachers,” were published in the 50th Anniversary issue. He passed away in 2015.
Paul-Victor Winters’s work appears in See Through My Eyes: A Ghost Mystery Anthology from 2017. His poetry and reviews have appeared in The Literary Review nine times. Most recently, his poems “Anniversary,” “Autobiography,” “Interior Life,” and “[Perhaps by comet.]” were published in the Emo, Meet Hole issue of Spring 2011.