It’s only a week since I did my most recent post of congratulations and good news, and there are already more good things to report.
Several of them have some relationship to JAAM, the annual literary magazine based in Wellington. I guest-edited Issue 26 of JAAM in 2008, and since it appeared, I have enjoyed seeing various writers who featured in the issue – as well as some who didn’t – achieve greater prominence. I was also pleased that the issue sold well enough to be reprinted – copies are still available in at least some of the bookshops which stock JAAM.
The Website: The first notable achievement belongs to JAAM itself. In the past, information about JAAM could be found at various places online, and the information wasn’t always consistent from site to site. Now, JAAM publisher Helen Rickerby has created a comprehensive JAAM website, where you can find out about past, present and planned future issues.
The Video: The aforementioned Helen Rickerby is a woman of many talents, among them poet, publisher and blogger. Now she’s a video poet as well. Check out the video she made to accompany her poem Calling You Home – and her explanation of how she made it.
The Book: Michele Powles, whose story “A Body of Land” appeared in JAAM 26, has a new novel out which has been getting good reviews: Weathered Bones. It has Wellington, weather, lighthouses and ghosts. It sounds like my sort of book.
The Blog: Ross Brighton has a blog focusing on experimental poetry and language poetry. Those aren’t things I know much about, so I intend to keep an eye on Ross’s blog and learn.
The Fanzine: After high school, my next ventures into writing and publishing were as the editor of a science fiction fanzine, TIMBRE. (You can find a couple of pieces from TIMBRE in the Articles section of my website.) I’m now somewhat out of touch with SF fandom and fanzines, but I have recently been enjoying a great example of the form, issue 10 of Steam Engine Time, edited by Janine Stinson and Bruce Gillespie.
Bruce has made it his life’s mission to produce what are called fanzines, but are really literary magazines focusing on science fiction, with detailed, well-informed articles about science fiction writers, science fiction books, and the history of science fiction and science fiction fandom. The eFanzines.com site is a good place to begin to find out about great sf fanzines edited by Bruce, and by many others.
Don’t let the word “fanzine” put you off; it’s just a word. Go in with an open mind and prepare to find treasure.
