The Review of Contemporary Fiction

TriQuarterly New Writers by Reginald Gibbons and Susan Hahn
Rick Henry

Reginald Gibbons and Susan Hahn, eds. TriQuarterly New Writers. Northwestern Univ. Press, 1996. 198 pp. Paper: $14.95.

Equally divided between fiction and poetry, the contributions in this collection are marked as much by their quality as they are by the editors’ conscious attempt to assemble a diverse set of experiences. However diverse these experiences, the visions offered by these writers are most decidedly personal. Terri Brown-Davidson’s sexual and sensory poetry, which is often tinged with the macabre or features love interests juxtaposed against the discomfiting presence of such third parties as babies or puppets. Page Dougherty Delano writes about the life of a union organizer in the coal industry and about adolescent struggles with the body and identity. Loretta Collins uses the ordinary things of life—shoes, soup, photographs—to illuminate more general human experiences of death, violation, abandonment and misogyny.

Fiction writers Yolanda Barnes, Eileen Cherry, and Cassandra Smith investigate family relationships wherein conflicts arise because characters have been too close, too intimate. Barnes examines the critical moments when people with long histories come together after years of separation. As she alternates between past and present, she builds small dramas of the mind, where victories are pyrrhic and empty. Cherry offers stories about growing up in Alabama and the senseless confiicts between women as they struggle for power and status. Cassandra Smith’s fiction is surprisingly rich and reminds us of the density and power of language as she tracks three generations of the lies mothers and daughters tell each other. (Indeed, however diverse the lives of these ten writers, most share the care and attention to language born of their years spent pursuing M.F.A.s and Ph.D.s.)

Poet Dean Shavit and fiction writer Tammi Bob explore their Jewish heritages and the continuing need for coming to terms with the atrocities of the Second World War. Dean Shavit writes about family, his grandparents, their lives, and the touching act of his grandmother preparing his grandfather for burial. Tammi Bob’s stories address the effects of World War II, immigration, and nationality on a young Jewish girl who lives in the United States. Bob is concerned with how these issues come to bear on her heroine’s interactions with young men, especially her family’s responses. Also set against a rich backdrop of the mid-twentieth century, Steve Fay’s poem “The Milkweed Parables” is a quiet stunner.

William Loizeaux is, perhaps, the exception to the largely personal explorations of his fellow contributors. Loizeaux is more interested in the private spaces individuals need to nurture and sustain relationships. The respect, love, and relationships that such privacies foster, however, are not without their own problems.

The editors showcase these ten writers with multiple offerings from each. In most cases, this is not nearly enough. We await collections from each to see how their themes develop, to discover how they come to terms with their personal and family histories. [Rick Henry]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction TriQuarterly New Writers by Reginald Gibbons and Susan Hahn Rick Henry Reginald Gibbons and Susan Hahn, eds. TriQuarterly New Writers. Northwestern Univ. Press, 1996. 198 pp. Paper: $14.95. Equally divided between fiction and poetry, the contributions in this collection are marked as much by their quality as they are by the editors’ conscious attempt to assemble a diverse set of experiences. However diverse these experiences, the visions offered by these writers are most decidedly personal. Terri Brown-Davidson’s sexual and sensory poetry, which is often tinged with the macabre or features love interests juxtaposed against the discomfiting presence of such third parties as babies or puppets. Page Dougherty Delano writes about the life of a union organizer in the coal industry and about adolescent struggles with the body and identity. Loretta Collins uses the ordinary things of life—shoes, soup, photographs—to illuminate more general human experiences of death, violation, abandonment and misogyny. Fiction writers Yolanda Barnes, Eileen Cherry, and Cassandra Smith investigate family relationships wherein conflicts arise because characters have been too close, too intimate. Barnes examines the critical moments when people with long histories come together after years of separation. As she alternates between past and present, she builds small dramas of the mind, where victories are pyrrhic and empty. Cherry offers stories about growing up in Alabama and the senseless confiicts between women as they struggle for power and status. Cassandra Smith’s fiction is surprisingly rich and reminds us of the density and power of language as she tracks three generations of the lies mothers and daughters tell each other. (Indeed, however diverse the lives of these ten writers, most share the care and attention to language born of their years spent pursuing M.F.A.s and Ph.D.s.) Poet Dean Shavit and fiction writer Tammi Bob explore their Jewish heritages and the continuing need for coming to terms with the atrocities of the Second World War. Dean Shavit writes about family, his grandparents, their lives, and the touching act of his grandmother preparing his grandfather for burial. Tammi Bob’s stories address the effects of World War II, immigration, and nationality on a young Jewish girl who lives in the United States. Bob is concerned with how these issues come to bear on her heroine’s interactions with young men, especially her family’s responses. Also set against a rich backdrop of the mid-twentieth century, Steve Fay’s poem “The Milkweed Parables” is a quiet stunner. William Loizeaux is, perhaps, the exception to the largely personal explorations of his fellow contributors. Loizeaux is more interested in the private spaces individuals need to nurture and sustain relationships. The respect, love, and relationships that such privacies foster, however, are not without their own problems. The editors showcase these ten writers with multiple offerings from each. In most cases, this is not nearly enough. We await collections from each to see how their themes develop, to discover how they come to terms with their personal and family histories. [Rick Henry]

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