Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Bad news from the AWP

It appears that the two most exciting print journals are history, at least for the moment. It appears that Catherine Taylor was booted from the New Ohio Review editorship for publishing genre-bending texts and that Soft Targets ran out of funding due to all its spectacular art reproductions.

The Catherine Taylor case is really disturbing and it points out once again the narrow-mindedness and defensiveness of those in charge of things. Because, despite what Reginald Shepherd (whom I met at the AWP and who related some of the "best" Iowa stories I've ever heard) believes, there are still people in charge of things.

Nevertheless, Joyelle and I have an exciting essay/manifesto about translation in the next NOR.

6 Comments:

Blogger Sandra Simonds said...

I reviewed this journal---and i pretty much predicted that this would happen. It's really a shame.

I guess one or two good issues is better than none.

Sandra

7:37 PM  
Blogger Johannes said...

How did you know?

6:45 AM  
Blogger Sandra Simonds said...

I don't know anything about the journal, specifically, but I know the basic workings of university journals. The first issue of NOR was really pretty radical. With the turnover of graduate students at university journals, at the time I reviewed this journal, I believed it to be highly unlikely that an avant sensibility would sustain itself from issue to issue. It is very disappointing but also points to the entrenched conservatism of the academy.

Hope you are doing well.

Sandra

7:07 AM  
Blogger François Luong said...

Oh, sucks. But much like Sandra, I was wondering how long /nor would remain interesting.

5:21 PM  
Blogger Johannes said...

I think Catherine Taylor was in charge of it and she's a professor, not a grad student. And then she appears to have been pushed out by senior professors who felt she was out of control. But the best issue is the next one because it features mine and Joyelle's essay on translation and "the disabled text."

11:31 AM  
Blogger Sandra Simonds said...

I guess my theory can be applied to faculty and higher level faculty too.

But let's face it, she was totally out of control.

3:32 PM  

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