Bukowski Review. Number One
by Bukowski Review. Winter 2001-2002. 64 pages. Editors: Joan Jobe Smith and Marilyn Johnson. 1044 East 2nd Street - No. 8, Long Beech, California, 90802.
Book Review by Michael Basinski
A much needed magazine, Bukowski Review, Number One, is a literary place where discussion on, about, and in homage of Charles Bukowski can take place. And it is a place also to take a swing at Bukowski. This is good. This is good. It is a fantastic effort and an exercise in both love and devotion. The review hails form Bukowski country, LA and south of LA ’ in fact - Long Beach! The pantheon of Bukowski friends and acquaintances contribute in one form or another to this inaugural issue. There are interviews by Fred Voss of franEye, Ann Menebroker and Linda King. Bukowski advocates will know these names. There is writing by Jay Martin, Joan Jobe Smith, Fred Voss, Mark Wisniewski and Gerald Locklin. There is a lot here that I don’t mention, I am sorry, I can’t, space is tight and short. But here is also an article by Voss called Bukowski & The Wormwood Review and the Bukowski Review is dedicated to Bukowski and also Wormwood Review Editor Marvin Malone. All things are correct and here in place in this Review. Its fact, its existence is what is most important. It is important. Charles Bukowski’s place in literature is fixed - with or without this review. However, what Charles Bukowski’s poetry meant beyond what he wrote and what he meant to poets and American letters is less clear, less defined. Bukowski Review begins to bring that into focus. The discussion, the argument will continue. The poetry that Bukowski tapped in his poems continues also. And editors and poets, the circle that makes up this issue, are much more than Bukowski fans. They carry it forward in their own work. This is not a fan club. These are artists working in the realm of a legitimate American poetry, a poetry that was heralded and popularized by Bukowski. All hail the Arrival of Bukowski Review. All hail Long Beach. All hail or hale and hail and hale the editors and poets! Long may it rain (The day it rained in LA) and reign.
Made with ♥ in Baltimore.
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