Cross Connect
Once again I have continued my quest to broaden my literary horizons and set out into the wild blue of online literature. Jumping from site to site, I came across this online magazine that claimed to publish not only both poetry and fiction but also pieces of visual art. The e-zine is called Cross Connect (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~xconnect/). I checked out it's about xconnect link and read the following: "With this issue, the ninth Web issue of Xconnect, we conclude our third year of life -- we can't help but pause -- collectively. In reflection, we can almost fall backward toward our founding inspiration -- to create a new outlet for writers. One, which would acknowledge the vast expanse of disciplines, from experimental to works well rooted in our own discoveries." This last little bit I found interesting. Many magazines nowadays, at least from the meager amount that I have read, seem to be adopting the idea of accepting everyone no matter how experimental or conservative your work may be. I've also noticed that many of these magazines don't really live up to their own hype. In this case, I'll let you be the judge.
While reading through the works, I found a couple of different poems that did seem to be radically different, as far as their structure at least. One of the poems was "Nights in a Time of War", by Lyn Hejinian. It definitely plays with lines and spacing, in a way that many of the other works did not. I can't really cut and paste it here and keep the same spacings, so here is a link to it: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/xconnect/i25/g/hejinian.html . I'm really glad that people are attempting to cover a more broad range in work nowadays. At least it gives people like me the opportunity to experience different types works without having to go all over the place.
1 comment:
I used to work on the staff of a tiny (and now defunct) literary magazine , and we often struggled with how we wanted to define ourselves throught the type of work that we published. The magazine was usually fairly short and served a small community semi-affiliated with a local college. Still, we recieved quite a variety of submissions and decieded to publish what we saw as "the best" of what we reviewed, rather than trying to pigeon-hole things into one category or other.
Although our broad array of work was largely out of necessity I really agree with your point that magazines and ezines that combine multiple styles and genres, like Cross Connect, give readers a change to explore a vairiety of work in one place, especially those who perhaps have not found their place in the literary world or have multiple interests. Magazines with this format allows new readers to dabble and try out different literary forms, where they might be intimidated to approach a nich magazine that was more avant garde or specializing in a type of writing with which they were unfamilear. I personally appreciate such magazines, especailyl since I write (and love to read!) both poetry and fiction.
Best wishes with your discoveries in the literary world!
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