We’re sending this to all of you, "accepted" or "rejected" this time around, and those who asked for guidelines, to thank you for your interest and your poems and also to explain the purposes this magazine was meant to serve, and what we hope for from its writers and its readers. Back in 1996, its founder wanted to set up some alternative to literary fashions that seemed molded too much by various markets, and too little by visions of the world we’d like to make. She’d come of age as a poet in an era when poetry was shared with friends who sought to see the outline of a common future, where every one had something to contribute, and where the challenge was not to be "better" than fellow-bard, but rather to be true – to speak one’s part, whatever it might be. As time went on, she’d come to feel the need for a “return” from modernism, seeing that some of the Victorians had been clearer about the nature of the poet’s calling as speaker of community and seeker of a “common truth” (as Paul Celan had put it just at the last). And so the magazine was called “The Neovictorian.” “Cochlea,” its second name, was meant to emphasize that poetry must address the inner ear (not merely fashion “visual imagery”!). The standpoints which this dual name reflected remain in force, although the name is now The Deronda Review. The change reflects a wish to call attention to our ties to one embattled particular -- Israel; it also represents a sharpening of focus, on the point at which Victorian culture and that of Israel encountered. Daniel Deronda was the final statement of that Victorian writer – Marian Evans, a.k.a. George Eliot -- in whose work introspection and social criticism were integrated most successfully. As you will recollect, Daniel Deronda discovers that he is a Jew, relearns and reaffirms his Judaism, and in the end returns to his ancestral land. For the fashionable heroine, who suffers from, and exemplifies, a kind of ambient tawdriness we find all too familiar, Deronda represents a source of values; and we would like to hope this opening-out of Western literature toward Jewish teaching may yet appear prophetic. For the vision of a people who collectively assume responsibility for the Creation still shines above the chaos of the present as a model that may yet inspire renewal, and surely as a source of inspiration to poetry as a common enterprise of understanding and communication. At any rate, the poems we’ve selected are those that seemed as if they might fit in to such a dialogue -- that held some spark of true experience or concern, conveyed in words that came alive to tell their tale. If this has struck a chord in you, we hope to hear from you again. If we have failed to understand your work, then please forgive us and try again. A sample issue may help you to find our pitch. The issue won't have a "bio" section, but will print titles of books by the contributors, also your mailing address, if you're willing to enter into dialogue with readers -- please let us know. Wishing you all the best of vision, luck and guidance, we remain yours sincerely, Esther Cameron, Editor Mindy Aber Barad, Co-Editor for Israel
| |