A few words from the author of "Requiem in Laramie"

Kevin Simmonds, author of "Requiem in Laramie," a prose poem recently published in our short form, online edition of Bellingham Review shared with us a meditation on his poem and its significance.


We have such short memories. Soul-grabbing atrocities only momentarily command our attention and call our consciousness to larger responsibilities.

I'd like to think that art can be a residue, a re-membering that plays as refrain inside us. My poem "Requiem in Laramie" is relatively short and, I hope, tiny enough to aggravate memory without calling too much attention to itself.

The poem is for us, not Matthew Shepard. The mother and the missing child are many of us or people we've known or heard about. The poem is representation of something else, a stand in. That's not to say it isn't fully itself as a poem, a piece of artwork. But I swear I've failed in many ways if that poem is only about itself.
-Kevin Simmonds

Out first online issue

Hello readers,

We're pleased to announce that our first online issue in short forms will be published November 7, on our new website. Check out the issue for work by Jessie van Eearden, Mark Wagenaar, Anne Kaier, Robert Miltner, and more!

Poets and Writers

Hey everyone,

Our Editor-in-Chief, Brenda Miller is featured in the latest issue of Poets and Writers. She and the editors of three other journals were interviewed for a discussion on literary publication.

Check it out!

Writing the other

Writing the Other

Because of my interests as a writer (and an occasional critical scholar) I oftentimes find myself in a tricky subject position--as someone who wants to write about the other, without actually being an other. While I suppose that I am marginalized in the sense of being female, the rest of my experiences typify white, middle-class America. So I start to feel uncomfortable, or insensitive, when I write stories with characters whose place in the world is less secure than my own (either because of their geographic location, race, religion, sexual orientation, or class). I feel like a fraud, a phoney. I worry that I am objectifying and exoticizing someone who is historically disempowered or that I am embarrassingly ignorant regarding experiences that are different than my own. As a writer, I struggle with my desire to tell important stories, but I also want tell stories authentically. How can I do both of these things? How can I write about a culture or group of people to which I don't belong?

Publishers Weekly recently posted an article about the intentional exclusion of gay characters in YA Literature, and a friend of mine responded to this article on Facebook. She wrote: "I've always wanted to write a gay character, but because I'm not gay, I feel that I don't have the authority." Apparently I'm not alone. It seems that certain stories are exclusive. We think that they can only be told by certain authors, and those authors must belong to the group they are trying to represent. Otherwise the work is crude or inaccurate.

To give another example, while perusing the Internet for publications that might be interested in my work, I noticed that Jersey Devil Press offers a behind the scenes take on the editor's preferences. One of Monica's "justifiable grounds for homicide" is men who write as female narrators. To be fair, Monica qualifies that statement, writing that the reason for her disdain is the number of offensive submissions her press receives, stories in which male writers rely on chauvinist cliches or sexist stereotypes. Still, I somehow feel that by making certain subjects exclusive, we're promoting the same problematic boundaries.

I'm interested in this question of who "owns" the right to marginalized content because I am currently at work writing my thesis, a collection of short stories centered around the 2007-8 election crisis in Kenya. I'm not Kenyan, nor am I of African ancestry, and as I work through this project, I've begun to question my right to tell this story. I wasn't there. As I said, I'm not African, and I don't have much (any) experience with political unrest. Part of me wants to stop writing about Kenya, for all of these reasons that make me feel small and somewhat ignorant, but I also think that it's wrong for Literature to have exclusive subjects, for it to have boundaries, or limits.

I don't really have an answer to the question of whether or not it's okay to write about the other, but because it's been bothering me, I thought I would put my thoughts out there.

Marilyn

Congratulations to Colin Rafferty

Hey Bellingham blog followers,

I wanted to let you know that Colin Rafferty's essay, "Phantoms (A Correspondence)" will be republished in this November/December issue of Utne Reader. Bellingham Review is thrilled that we had the chance to publish this work first, and we are so excited for Rafferty.

I love Utne Reader. Their insightful essays leave me feeling intellectually invigorated with the turn of each page.

I hope you will enjoy seeing Rafferty's essay again in the pages of this excellent magazine.

Cheers,

Marilyn

We are now accepting electronic submissions

Dear readers,
Bellingham Review is pleased to announce that we are now officially accepting electronic submissions via Submishmash. http://bhreview.submishmash.com/submit

This is part of our transition to accepting only electronic manuscripts. We hope to have made the switch to only electonic submissions by the beginning of the next academic year, 2012-2013.

As much as we appreciate the beauty of story, essay, or poem captured on a clean, crisp piece of paper, we 've decided to go digital because of the ease of the online submission process. Thanks Submishmash!

We hope that all of our readers enjoy this new, streamlined submission process. As an editor, I can say that I look forward to reading your digital submissions. If you have any questions regarding the submission process, please review the submission guidelines available on our website, or feel free to send me an email at Bellingham.Review@wwu.edu

Cheers,
Marilyn

New Submission Guidelines

Hey Everyone,
Bellingham Review is now accepting electronic submissions. Check out the new submission guidelines on our website!
http://www.wwu.edu/bhreview/submissions.shtml