Slope began on a whim one year ago. We're
grateful for the support from a great many who have
helped make it a premier online venue; to those who set
aside their hesitation over the "legitimacy" or
"credibility" of electronic publishing and took
the chance. This is, after all, what Slope
and all the magazines we admire are about: on placing
great value in risk-taking, moving away from comfortable
and tired conventions/resolutions and staking new ground.
Hardly a revolutionary ideal, hardly a new ideal. But an
ideal, nevertheless, seemingly lost to a number of
editors these days. How many more X+Y=Z poems do they
think we can we stomach? This issue is a fine example, we think, of our
eclectic yearnings. Favoring, or bowing to, poetic
"schools" and "sensibilities" is
simply not a part of our editorial aesthetic; we strive
to compile a catalogue of differing visions in
each issue. We like the flowering of ordinary
possibilities, to quote Merton, no matter which vehicle
or "method" drives it. "Universes are strewn about," wrote Paz, and we at Slope want to collect them. Or at least as many as we can. We're trying. - Ethan Paquin, 2 November 2000 Slope occasionally features "sampler" issues. Recent examples include New Avant Poetry (Issue 5) and Contemporary Womens Poetry (Issue 6); coming next time around is the New Welsh Poetry sampler (Issue 8). Poets featured and/or forthcoming in Slope
include James Tate, Forrest Gander, Heather McHugh, Dara
Wier, Franz Wright, Eric Pankey, Eugen
Jebeleanu, Matthew Rohrer, Mary Jo Bang, Ron
Silliman, Joe Wenderoth, John Kinsella, Timothy Liu,
Margot Schilpp, Pam Brown, Peter Finch, Kevin
Hart, Peter Minter, Brian Henry, Lee
Upton, Katy Lederer, Drew Milne, Mark
Bibbins, Coral Hull, Graham Foust, Jonathan Monroe, Susan
Schultz, Louis Armand, Spencer Selby, Christine Hume,
Javant Biarujia, and many others. All poems submitted must be previously unpublished and accompanied by a brief biographical note. Unsolicited poems, reviews, interviews and poems in translation will be considered year-round. Please query before sending reviews and interviews. Rights revert to poets upon publication.
Unfortunately, we can not at this time offer payment for
any work accepted. February 2001 Gallery Bershad of Boston, Massachusetts, hosts a Slope reading/concert/party at a time and date to be announced. The public is invited. Readers tentatively scheduled include Franz Wright, Matthew Zapruder and Peter Richards. Check the gallery website for details as they become available. May 4 and 5, 2001 University of Massachusetts at Amherst hosts a poetry publication festival (yet to be named) - a weekend of readings, panels and receptions featuring alumni of the UMass MFA program who have gone on to edit journals and presses. Slope will be represented in a panel discussion on electronic publishing. More details are forthcoming. A print collection of poems published in Slope
is being planned. |