Tuesday, October 8, 2013
I just received the latest issue of BLUE COLLAR REVIEW, a magazine out of Norfolk, Virginia that describes itself as the “Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature.” It’s been coming out several times a year for 16 years, and it’s becoming a classic in its field. Is every poem well crafted in the traditional, academic sense? No. Are some lines sentimental to a degree that I have no desire ever again to revisit the poem? Yes. And yet I always look forward to this magazine in a way that I could never find myself anticipating the arrival of most poetry magazines. Al Markowita and Mary Franke keep their minds and hearts open to the voices left out “American Poetry Review” and almost always find a poem or two that leaves me in awe of its honest precision. Joe Weil’s “The First Time I Got Up Early,” in the current issue, for instance, is one of the best poems I’ve read this year and I look forward to sharing it with my students.
For anyone out there who would like to support a literary magazine that supports a radical reevaluation of our the conditions of our lives, then send $15 (check made out to Partisan Press) for a one-year subscription to:
Blue Collar Review
P.O. Box 11417
Norfolk, VA 23517
About Bill Mohr