A bit about our literary zine June 23, 1985

 Dear Gaye:

It was good to hear from you, and that James Irsay mentioned our newspaper on the air. We’ve had a tentative connection with WBAI over the last few years, especially with people like John Fisk and Bob Fass. But we don’t depend on them.

We are a separate entity entirely struggling – as you will see from the issue already in the mail – on a shoe string budget.

Don’t worry about sending us money. That’s not the point of the newspaper anyway. I’d rather have you reading it, writing for it or sharing it with the community.

We’re now into our 18th issue, which comes out roughly every other month—using whatever facilities we can to print. We have a circulation of two to three hundred nationwide, people who have come to care about us.

Primarily we are literary minded with Michael, our co-editor, holding all the degrees.

Michael gets frustrated at my lack of understanding for many of the basic areas of literature. I’m a bulldog, pushing and pulling, often working two or three part time jobs to keep the newspaper going.

We generally don’t know when the next issue will come out. We only know there will be one, and one after that, and even again one after that as well.

Your interest pleases me greatly, for in spite of the sometimes-desperate appearance of the review, we do work hard. The Bible issue to which you refer is one a series of themed issues.

Themes crop up now and then, and in the past have incorporated Winnie-the-Pooh, Sci-Fi, Shakespeare, Modernists and Christmas (my personal favorite.) Peppered in between are issues with various artists though all of the issues are open to a variety of fresh faces.

Michael is a bit hard on those who write poetry – perhaps because he so much excels in that area himself. Years ago, we ran a workshop together. I found myself repairing the egos broken by his heavy-handed criticism. But he knows his poetry and has often spoken to me about mine.

Typos, you might note, fill our pages. This is partly due to the exhausted state in which I do most of the typing, partly due to the learning process we are still engaged in. With each issue we grow in experience and hopefully we will improve to the point where we are nearly perfect. For me it is a lesson in the craft of writing.

The newspaper is also a way of keeping in touch with people, artists and non-artists, whom I have met over the years and do not want to lose. Unfortunately, I can’t keep my politics out of these pages, but we do print pieces with points of view I do not particularly agree with. In the issue you will receive soon, I mention some nasty moments in WBAI history.

At your request, I am putting you on our mailing list – which means you have been entered into the mighty Altar of my Atari computer and you will receive issues in the future.

If you wish to contribute literature or money, both are welcome. Please feel free to write back and comment on what you see in the paper. Criticize freely. We love to print letters.

Many of us send work to each other to elicit comments. We also frequently attend local literary events. This is a community as much as it is a newspaper. We are all trying to share ideas.

Future themes coming up in the near view include Alice in Wonderland, the Latin American issue, the Wild West issue, the spy guys issue, an neo-neo-classical issue (a review of Roman and Greek literature and thought) as well as issues with no theme at all. Should you want a copy of what I consider our best issue to date, we still have copies left of our theme about the year 1968.

Keep the faith (whatever faith that may be).

 

Your friend

Al Sullivan.

 

 1985 menu


email to Al Sullivan

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An old nemesis December 11, 1985

Image
    Surisky hated me from early on in grammar school, although “hate” may be too strong a word to describe his reaction to me. I was simply available to him for abuse, Third grade was pivotal for both of us. Prior to that, we were simply feeling our way through Catholic School routine, emerging eventually as whole personalities from the muck of early childhood. He came across as a thug, trying to convey the image of a tough guy. He wore a leather jacket and spiked boots, and snuck into see James Dean movies. Third grade was tough on everybody, including the teachers, who considered us the worst class in the history of the school – even in the safe grades of Kindergarten, First and Second. Two of the three nuns retired after passing us on. But it was in the third grade that we began to work our magic, driving even the stout-hearted nuns crazy. Later, the nuns tried to break our spirit. But we fully represented our age and had the full impact of the 1960s behin...
Read more

The clock is ticking July 18, 1985

Image
  We’re talking love here – silly fictional love with all the connotations of disaster. I seem to be on the meat chopping block with Safire looking for qualities in me that are lacking in her husband. The fact that there is a husband in the first place greatly disturbs me. All this said, I’m uncertain as to why I haven’t ended this already, except to know she is too much like my ex-wife to pass up without a closer examination. Even the way she thinks: slow, methodical, going from point A to point B. It has only been a week since she blurted out drunk that she wanted me in bed. It seems like much longer. And she hints of something more permanent, suggesting that I might fill in for her husband for a much longer duration. The night before last she suggested I come see her in her trailer, as if she is legally separated from her husband, when in fact she is supposed to be biding time until he finds them both a place to live in Baltimore. This is the same kind of smoke and...
Read more

Pauly leaves Passaic for the final time July 24, 1985

Image
    Pauly is leaving Passaic again. This comes after two years of us rubbing shoulders after he had been cast out of paradise in Towaco, after his goddess, Jane, went and married that man Pauly calls “a bum.” This has been a tough two years, filled with Pauly’s typical manipulation, his usual shaping of reality to his own needs often at other people’s (mine) expense. When Pauly first came I had Fran’s cultist brother as a temporary guest and Pauly spent most of his time trying to push me into getting that guest out. A few months later – in November – Fran got the ax from her ex and changed her mind about moving in with me after I had committed the spare room to Pauly. He assumed she meant more to me than he did and was already packing when I told Fran no. She had no place to go except for her father’s house, a father she had a love/hate relationship with, and she held it against me, even though we continued to see each other romantically. Pauly being Pauly drove ...
Read more