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The New Review of Literature

Thirty-seven years ago, in February 1971, I published the manifesto, “Why Am I a Socialist,” on the cover of the first issue of the tabloid review of literature Invisible City, edited and published by John McBride and myself. Passionate, assertive, somewhat embarrassing and self-conscious, it was the statement of youthful disaffection for, and rebellion against the then current literary climate, an idiosyncratic attitude and practice that would sustain Invisible City for twenty-eight issues, until 1982.

Today, thirty-seven years later, this disaffection seems more pronounced and perhaps, for many of my colleagues and myself, more profoundly risky and rebellious. Not only does the current publishing and literary scene appear dire, impoverished and hopelessly conformist and institutionalized, these conditions dictate that we move on and adapt our resistance to a different practice than that of 1971. Today, we aren’t so much sustained by a sense of publishing as part of a radical wave of inquiry and innovation, but, more than ever, our resistance is informed and defined by the specific needs and identities of an extended group, an international college or collage of poets and writers working in an increasingly hostile and corporate environment.

Some months ago, in August 2007, came a critical and fateful event: Bernard DeBoer, in New Jersey, the New Review of Literature’s primary distributor, announced that they were shutting down after 60 years.” It had become almost impossible to distribute a literary periodical in the United States, and that their business, which opened in 1946, was now un-sustainable.

Certainly the conditions of independent publishing are different and more extreme than those in 1971: the disappearance of independent booksellers, overwhelming reductions of government funding for literature, the flight to the internet and the subsequent proliferation of isolated and isolating chatter, to name a few. The need for action, for a departure from previous modes of production and distribution, however remains. This, the tenth issue of the New Review of Literature, will be the last. But by no means will it be our last literary magazine.

Beginning in October 2008, the Graduate Writing program of Otis College of Art and Design will publish or, a tabloid review of literature distributed free of charge throughout the U.S. and abroad. Published twice a year in an edition of 3-4,000 copies, or will feature poetry, short fiction, essays, reviews and statements (verbal and graphic). Aesthetically, and for the most part politically, the collaborators in this new venture share a destiny and common purpose. However problematic it may appear, we also share a certain destiny with Otis College of Art and Design, of which we are a publishing project. Throughout its ninety year history, Otis has shown a willingness to take risks in its approach to education, and in this we take heart.

As Mohammed Dib has remarked, “The fact that writing entails a risk restores a certain stamp of nobility to literature. Yet today, it is less a question of nobility than one of simple survival in the vast and chattering desert that has spread over a large part of this planet.” We then choose to start afresh to survive in this preposterous territory, this “chattering desert.”

If you would like to receive a copy of the first issue of or, please send us your name and address. You may also address any inquiries about the new publication to pvangel@otis.edu.

Paul Vangelisti
The Graduate Writing Program announces the release of Volume 5 No.2 of the NEW REVIEW OF LITERATURE!
Order yours today!
 
Please scroll down for submission guidelines.
 

Vol 5 No.2
(April 2008)

Featuring work by Samuel Amadon, Ascher/Straus, Dennis Barone, Chiara Barzini, Julia Bloch, C.S. Carrier, T. Zachary Cotler, Ray DiPalma, Mickey Disend, Patrick F. Durgin, Brian Evenson, E. Tracy Grinnell, Andrea Inglese, Ben Lerner, Oystein Lonn, Deborah Meadows, Douglas Messerli, William Mohr, Beatrice Mousli, Elizabeth Robinson, Peter Rosei, Joe Ross, Joe Safdie, Spencer Selby, Iris Smyles, Carolyn Stoloff, Luke Trent, Frederic Tuten

$12.95

 

Vol 5 No.1
(October 2007)

Featuring work by Rae Armantrout, Arkady Averchenko, Lori Baker, Norma Cole, Gillian Conoley, Corrado Costa, Domicio Coutinho, Ray DiPalma, Noah Eli Gordon, Lisa Hawes, Anselm Hollo, Andrew Joron, Michael Joyce, Elizabeth MacKiernan, Ali M. Meghdadi, Christina Mengert, Douglas Messerli, William Mohr, Simon Perchik, Dennis Phillips, Jayson Pida, Carol Potter, Patrick Pritchett, Stephen Ratcliffe, Standard Schaefer, Susan M. Schultz, D.E. Steward, Liz Waldner, Wendy Walker, Penny Weinraub

$12.95
 
Vol 4 No.2
(April 2007)

Featuring work by Amy Allara, Ralph Angel, Stan Apps, John Ashbery, Dennis Barone, Gillian Conoley, Corrado Costa, Gilad Elbom, Peter Gadol, Jill Hummelstein, Suzanne Jill Levine, Timothy Liu, Carol Maier, David Matlin, Douglas Messerli, Laura Moriarty, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Jenny Nichols, Toby Olson, Dennis Phillips, Sarah Porter, Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Robinson, Martha Ronk, Standard Schaefer, Rodrigo Toscano, Luke Trent, Mark Wallace.

$12.95
 
Vol 4 No.1
(October 2006)

Featuring work by Helene Aji, Cheri Alma Ayres, James Belflower, Guy Bennett, Breyten Breytenbach, Neeli Cherkovski, Ray DiPalma, Joshua Edwards, Michael Farrell, Peter Ferry, Sarah French, Barbara Guest, Robert Hershon, Jen Hofer, Allison Schuette-Hoffman, Joanna Howard, Karla Kelsey, John Kinsella, Jon Leon, Hans Lodeizen, Deborah Meadows, Douglas Messerli, Joseph Noble, Wilfrid Nollendo, C. Natale Peditto, Chris Pusateri, Stephen Ratcliffe, Oliver Rice, Leslie Scalapino, Standard Schaefer, D. E. Steward, Thirteen British Poets, Luke Trent, Jean-Marie Venturini, Catherine Wagner, Mark Wallace.

$12.95
 
  Vol 3 No.2
(April 2006)

Featuring the work of Oswald de Andrade, David Antin, Rae Armantrout, Aurelio Arturo, Mohammed Bennis, Tony Brinkley, Mark DuCharme, Amanda Edwards, Sam Eisenstein, Flavio Ermini, Barbara Guest, Matthea Harvey, Jessica Holmes, Paul Hoover, Steve Katz, Douglas Messerli, Bruna Mori, Laura Mullen, Alice Notley, Octavio Paz, C. J. Pizarro, Jerome Rothenberg, Lou Rowan, Allison Schuette-Hoffman, Nathaniel Tarn, Ece Temelkuran, Jean-Marie Venturini, Catherine Wagner, Rosemarie Waldrop, Mac Wellman.

$12.95
 
  Vol 3 No.1
(October 2005)

Featuring work by George Albon, Amy Allara, Luigi Ballerini, Eric Baus, Guy R. Beining, Molly Bendall, Christine Chang, H.E. Francis, Jessica Holmes, Karla Kelsey, Marcia Leslie, Barbara Maloutas, Chris McCreary, Douglas Messerli, Christopher Middleton, Bill Mohr, Ryan Murphy, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Simon Perchik, Murray Pomerance, Paul Cormen Roberts, Elizabeth Robinson, Leslie Scalapino, Standard Schaefer, Jean-Marie Venturini, Diane Ward, Philip Whalen, Allyssa Wolf.

$12.95
 
  Vol 2 No.2
(April 2005)

Ayelet Amittay, Ralph Angel, Luis H. Antezana, R.M. Berry, Curtis Bonney, Krtistin Dykstra, Forest Gander, Gabriel Gudding, Bruce Henricksen, Kent Johnson, Chris Kerr, John Latta, David Levi Strauss, Stacey Levine, Henry Lezama, Jill Magi, Aaron McCullough, Douglas Messerli, Jorge Miralles, Sarah Porter, Randy Roark, Martha Ronk, Ken Rumble, Jaime Saenz, Leonard Schwartz, Cole Swenson, Diane Ward, and Thirteen Quebecois Poets (eds. Nicole Brossard& Jean-Eric Riopel). Conversation with Richard Forman.

$12.95
 
  Vol 2 No.1
(October 2004)

Features new work by Mary Jo Bang, Elizabeth Chin, Patricia Coleman, Corrado Costa, Ray DiPalma, Peter Ferry, E. Tracy Grinnell, Forest Hylton, Len Jenkin, Jacques Jouet, Timothy Liu, Ken McCollough, Douglas Messerli, Toby Olson, Martin Nakell, Joseph Noble, Jean-Jaques Poucel, Standard Schaefer, Luke Trent, Liz Waldner and Kent Johnson.

$12.95
 
  Vol 1 No.2
(April 2004)

Salar Abdoh, David Andrews, Dennis Barone, Tony Brinkley, Laura Payne Butler, Elizabeth Chin, Frank Chin, Killarney Clary, Jean Day, Thaisa Frank, Barbara Guest, Steve Katz, Jaqueline Kolosov, Raina Kostova, Sarah Manguso, Valère Novarina, C. Natale Peditto, Maury Pomerance, Claudia Roquette-Pinto, Jaques Roubaud, James Sallis, Norm Shepard, Daniel Tiffany, Keith & Rosmarie Waldrop. Conversation with Frederic Tuten.

$12.95
 
  Vol 1 No.1
(October 2003)

Features new work by Linsey Abrams, George Albon, Franklin Bruno, Gillian Conoley, Mohammed Dib, Mark DuCharme, Giuseppe Goffredo, E. Tracy Grinnel, Eloise Klein Healy, Kevin Killian, Alvin Lu, Chris McCreary, Deborah Meadows, Derek Molitor, Maryam Mortaz, Pablo Picasso, Stephen Ratcliffe, Elizabeth Robinson, Janet Rodney, James Sallis, Aaaron Shurin, Dominic Stansbery, Nathaniel Tarn, Jorge Volpi, Laura Wright, Lou Zangani.

$12.95
 
  The New Review of Literature was published semiannually (October and April) by the Graduate Writing Program of Otis College of Art + Design, 9045 Lincoln Blvd., Los Angeles, Ca 90045; 310 665-6892; nrl@otis.edu.
Available from:

Armadillo & Co. Distributors
7310 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Inglewood, CA 90302-3311
310 693-6061

SPD/Small Press Distribution
1341 Seventh Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
800 869-7533

Submission Guidelines

Deadline for Fall submission – TBA
Deadline for Spring submission – TBA

 
OR - A semi-annnual literary tabloid A semi-annual literary tabloid