Literary Magazine Review

“Poetry” is a literary magazine, which immediately grabbed my attention. In comparison with the other magazines on the shelf, I felt that “Poetry” had the perfect combination of a professional yet interesting appearance. Its cover is white and poetry is written in bold letters across the top. This was helpful for me because it quickly told me that it was exactly what I was looking for. The real attention grabbing aesthetic however is the cool lettering below the title, which is created from the film of a cassette tape. The film is twisted into cursive, which reads “take me with you”. This served as the perfect invitation for me to want to pick up and read this book. It gave me the feeling that this little magazine of poetry has limitless possibilities and could be taken anywhere. The front cover is especially inviting not only because of this message, but also because of its smooth feeling cover and its color. The rest of the pages inside the magazine were traditional black and white text. This assured me that the magazine was professional and seemed to be of high quality.
The magazine has poems from a variety of different authors. Some of the authors had several poem contributions, while others would have only one. The magazine also had a comment-based section, where authors were able to write in more of an essay format about a certain topic. I thought this was interesting because it gave me some insight into how these authors really think, and why they may chose to write about a certain topic. Normally when I read poetry, the only direct words I see from the author are from the poems so having these “comments” from the author was a rather exciting experience.
The magazine also provided in-depth backgrounds and anecdotal stories about some of the featured authors. Knowing about the author’s major experiences and views in the world helped add some context to the poems. I liked that I didn’t have to go research information on the Internet about the author, but could instead read the crucial details right there in the magazine. The fact that literary magazines have freedom to provide more than just poetry in their productions makes it more enjoyable and worthwhile for me to read. This was because I was able to feel some sense of closure after a group of poems were read, as there would often be a translation note before the next poems. This not only allowed me to understand the motivation behind the poetry but also allowed me to absorb the poems and pause before the next featured poems began.
I also liked that the magazine featured authors from very diverse backgrounds. I was able to read poetry from authors of Taiwan, Palestine, Berlin, the former USSR, and Montreal. I felt like this provided a refreshing aspect to the magazine, as each poet was able to bring his or her own perspectives and ideas to the magazine. I also felt like a lot of the poems were contemporary enough that we would be able to study them in our class. They were generally not made in a strict form, and were short and enjoyable to read.
I didn’t really have a favorite or least favorite poem in the magazine, but I did really enjoy the last section where people were able to write their opinions into the editor about previous poems that had been featured. Authors were also able to respond back to the reader’s criticism and defend their poems or provide further explanations. I thought this inter-play between the authors and readers was quite entertaining to read.