NEWS INDEX Archives 2004 December

Literary magazine offers a kaleidoscope of ideas, images and innovations

Andrea Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@uiuc.edu

12/8/04

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — If the second issue of Ninth Letter were candy, it would be a 10-pound box of assorted chocolates.

If it were a competitive sport, it would be the Tour de France.

If it were a carnival attraction, it would be the Fun House.

The latest incarnation of the literary magazine published by the MFA creative writing program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is that rich and varied, that challenging and that much fun.

Innovative and bold, and featuring emerging writers alongside established storytellers, as well as visual artists working in a variety of media, it certainly is not your father’s literary magazine, and it certainly hasn’t a peer in its genre. But then, that seems to be the point.

In her prefatory editor’s note, Jodee Rubins, previously managing editor of the New England Review in Vermont, said that the staff’s primary goal was to avoid duplicating the first issue, widely considered a tour de force.

“Our mission above all is to refuse to succumb to the comfort of an established, test-driven format,” Rubins said, “or to confine ourselves to a single definition of literature. For Volume I Issue 2, we’ve experimented with alternative media and interactivity; we’ve also included some special items for readers and collectors.”

The magazine’s goal is “to challenge the traditional boundaries of artistic pursuit while maintaining the quality and integrity that has long been the yardstick of artistic success.” It exists on paper and on pixels, the latter by way of www.ninthletter.com. (Macintosh users can access the site by using a browser other than Internet Explorer.)

Steve Almond, a previous contributor and self-described “veteran of the small press ghetto,” wrote in Number Two’s afterword that Ninth Letter “stands as a small miracle.”

The magazine, he stated, “is devoted to the dazzling, lunatic notion that readers might not need a set of instructions to absorb art,” and the labor of literary love is “an organic expression of the staff’s lust for meaning.”

Not to be outshone by the inaugural issue, which offered an interview with Yann Martel and pieces by Mark Doty, Dave Eggers and Reagan Louis, the second issue carries pieces by Ann Beattie, Ron Carlson and George Singleton, plus network art from flyingpuppet.com. Genres include art, fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Singleton’s short story title, “The Novels of Raymond Carver” (Carver wrote only short stories), telegraphs the Southern storyteller’s flair for irony in a story about his neurotic, germ-fearing father’s impact on him. His first paragraph ends: “Back when I had an indoor dog named Slick, it was my job to vacuum him every morning before school, every afternoon at feeding time. Slick took to watching the front door endlessly, and finally escaped through the legs of two Mormons one summer day. He never returned.”

Tom Bissell’s nonfiction piece on “Humor and the Apocalypse” is a lecture-length essay examining humor, including the black variety, especially as it functions – or malfunctions – in American literature. His baseline: “Like all forms of emotionally potent writing, tragedy is very hard to fake. It’s just not as serious as comedy.”

The editor’s page offers “nine unique facts to this issue,” including, the “contributor who lives furthest from the 9L offices”: Roy Kesey, in Beijing, 6,710 miles, and the contributor nearest: Janice Harrington, a stone’s throw at 1.3 miles.

The contributors’ notes section is especially fun. There, readers gain insights – some useful, some less so – into the perennially intriguing modus operandi of writers and artists. For example, the hometowns and recent publications of the contributors are disclosed, as are their favorite words, their writing methods of choice, and even what they like to eat and drink while writing.

Ann Beattie‘s best time to write is “when hungry”; Nance Van Winckel’s best place to write is at the zoo; and Natania Rosenfeld’s favorite verbs are “encapsulate” and “lollop.”

We also learn that blood types A and O Positive and O Negative run through many writers’ veins, as do coffee, tea and bourbon – their drinks of choice when writing; fear of heights leads all contenders in the category of writers’ phobias.

Even the magazine’s covers are fun, composed of neat rows of contributors’ photos, black and white rectangles separated by perforations, making them suitable, presumably, for carrying in one’s wallet or for collecting, like baseball cards.

Another design surprise is Ander Monson’s microfiche card titled “Failure: Another Iteration,” a reflection, Rubins said, “on obsolete technologies, futile efforts and the ubiquitous nature of failure.” The essay is available on the Ninth Letter Web site as a PDF.

Novelist Richard Powers, a U. of I. professor of creative writing and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, contributed “They Come in a Steady Stream Now” to the Web site. His piece – his first foray into the realm of electronic media – “signals our commitment to advancing new literary forms,” said Joseph Squier, a professor of art and design at Illinois.

In the piece, Powers ponders e-mail spam and its effect on interpersonal communications. “Appropriately, the essay is delivered to the reader via a mock e-mail inbox and is frequently interrupted by spam messages and pop-up advertisements,” Rubins said.

Nan Goggin and Jennifer Gunji-Ballsrud, professors in Illinois’ School of Art and Design, and Squier serve as content editors and art directors for the Web site, and also direct art and design for the print publication. Other editors include creative writing professors Philip Graham, fiction editor; Michael Madonick, poetry editor; and David Wright, nonfiction editor.

Published in May and November, copies of Ninth Letter are $12.95 and can be purchased online at www.ninthletter.com. Copies also are available at several locations on and near the U. of I. campus, including the Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St., Champaign.