The Magazine Rack: News & Reviews, June 2011
By Steve Black, Coll. of Saint Rose, Albany, NY Jun 2, 2011In my review of the newly launched Tea Party Review I argue that it should be in libraries for two reasons: because of our commitment to providing information from all points of view and because it's a neat package of primary-source material on an important political movement. I find its content frustrating, but that's no cause to exclude it from my library. We plan to add it to our collection as soon as a bibliographic record shows up in OCLC. As of mid-May, there was still no record; I find this very curious and hope to see the magazine added to libraries' catalogs soon.
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A notable development in the magazine business was the recent demise of Mediaweek (ISSN 1055-176X) and Brandweek (ISSN 1064-4318). Both titles were absorbed by Adweek (ISSN 1549-9553). The three magazines have a rather complexly intertwined title history that's succinctly described on Adweek's "About Us" page. The reason for the merger is explained by the editor in the last issue of Mediaweek (Apr. 18, 2011). He writes that the tasks of working with the media, developing a brand, and creating compelling advertising have become so integrated that it's natural to recombine the titles. This argument makes sense, but I suspect that if they were still making enough money the publisher would continue all three. The newly constituted and redesigned Adweek has more than twice as many pages per issue and will save libraries some money. Readers of Mediaweek and Brandweek may be disappointed, but $299 to subscribe to each of the three is replaced by just $249 for the fatter, more content-rich Adweek.
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Speaking of ceased magazines, I'm lamenting the apparent demise of one of my favorite sources of information, the Magazine Death Pool. The witty, well-informed, and anonymous author's last post was in November 2010 (on the death of U.S. News & World Report). If you've never taken a peek at this entertaining site, do so soon before it disappears.
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This month's reviews of new periodicals include two literary magazines and a scholarly journal.
Draft: The Journal of Process. 2011. s-a. $25. Aud: Ac (Subject: English Language—Rhetoric—Study and Teaching. Issue examined: Issue Zero, Spring 2011)
Editors Mark Polanzak and Rachel Yoder reason that students of writing will benefit from a journal that exhibits the writing process. In the inaugural issue of Draft, they present two works of fiction from three angles: finished product, first draft, and an interview with the author. The two previously published works are Greg Hrbek's "Sagittarius" and Mary Miller's "Once Upon a Time, Bananas." The first drafts are typeset in Courier to help clarify which version is which. There are no cross-outs or margin notes, so the drafts are clean enough to be read easily. The interviews are also quite readable. The authors interviewed in this issue present their processes in a down-to-earth way that's easy to connect with. Credit is owed to the editors for posing interesting yet prosaic questions about where the writing takes place, how long it took, and what influenced their ideas for characters and dialog. In the introduction, the editors write that they are interested in "mechanics, techniques, approaches, triumphs, failures, concussive frustration—everything that goes into crafting a publishable piece of creative writing through revision." They invite teachers to use Draft in MFA and undergraduate English programs and writing workshops. The journal has great promise for that application. Draft is a worthy addition to libraries supporting creative writing programs, especially at its modest price.
The Journal of the Middle East and Africa. 2010. s-a. $198 print + online; $188 online. ISSN 2152-0844; eISSN 2152-0852. Aud: Ac (Subjects: Middle East—Africa. Issue examined: Vol.1, No. 1, 2010)
The launch of this new history and political science journal is certainly timely given the profound political events unfolding in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East. Muslim religion and culture forms a common thread that logically ties together these two regions of the world. It makes good sense to have a journal to focus on these commonalities. Articles in the inaugural issue include "Islamic Law, Muslim-Christian Relations, and the Transition to Democracy in Nigeria's Fourth Republic," "Terrorism and Counterterrorism in South Africa," and "Can Money Make Us Friends? Islamist Entrepreneurs and Chances for Democratization in the Muslim World." Responsibility for the journal is shared by the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa and the respected academic publisher Taylor & Francis. This is a very solid offering on a topic of broad interest. While the content is specialized, the writing is clear and relatively jargon free. The Journal of the Middle East and Africa is highly recommended for libraries supporting programs in history and political science.
Monkey Business. 2011. a. $15. ISSN 2159-7138. Aud: GA, Ac (Subject: Japanese Literature—Translations into English. Issue examined: Vol. 1, 2011)
Monkey Business is an annual journal of new writing from Japan. The English-language version reviewed here is published by Public Space Literary Projects—a Brooklyn-based group responsible for the literary journal A Public Space (ISSN 1558-965X)—and features a selection of translations from the original. Financial support is provided by the Nippon Foundation. The examined issue has poetry, short fiction, an interview, and manga (Brother and Sister Nishioka's "A Country Doctor," based on the story by Franz Kafka). Fifty of the journal's 167 pages are devoted to an interview with Haruki Murakami, the internationally renowned author of Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Themes upon which the largely allegorical creative fiction and poetry are loosely wrought include baseball, monsters, monkeys, and law school. The poetry and short fiction tend to be experimental and struck me as not very accessible. But a primary reason to collect literature in translation is to provide a window to different perspectives. Monkey Business is a good choice for collections of contemporary literature, especially for libraries supporting studies in Asian literatures.
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