At Long Last...Redemption!

Valparaiso Poetry Review Picks up One of my Poems


Albeit, poetry e-zines are probably the wave of the future, not all of them are created equal. But when they're good - they're very good! Some good ones that come to mind are (& please don't send me all your e-mails and missives renouncing me as an imbecile for having missed your particular choices - I mean I usually can't even remember what I had for breakfast!) : Eclectica, Adirondack Review, Cortland Review, Stirring, No Tell Motel, Three Candles, Tarpaulin Sky and one of my favorites of the bunch VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW . Some of the digerati that have had their poetry appear there read as a who's who of poetry:

David Baker, Claire Bateman, Jared Carter, Billy Collins, Barbara Crooker, Bernardine Evaristo, Patricia Fargnoli, Annie Finch, Jeff Friedman, Carol Frost, Brendan Galvin, Reginald Gibbons, David Graham, Jonathan Holden, Colette Inez, Gray Jacobik, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Laurence Lieberman, Rachel Loden, William Matthews, Walt McDonald, Alicia Ostriker, Kevin Pilkington, Stanley Plumly, Rochelle Ratner, Sherod Santos, Margot Schilpp, Vivian Shipley, Beth Simon, Floyd Skloot, Kate Sontag, Virgil Suarez, Charles Wright, and many more.

However, in my humble opinion it is the editor of Valparaiso Poetry Review, Edward Byrne that makes VPR as good an on-line journal of poetry & poetics as it gets. The publication hails from Valparaiso University Valparaiso, Indiana. Here is a brief bio of Edward Byrne:


Edward Byrne is a graduate of Brooklyn College, City University of New York (B.A., M.F.A.), and the University of Utah (Ph.D.). He has won a number of awards and fellowships, including an Academy of American Poets Award, the Donald G. Whiteside Award for Poetry, and a Utah Arts Council Award for Poetry.

His first full-length collection of poetry, Along the Dark Shore (BOA Editions), was a finalist for the Elliston Book Award. A chapbook-length collection of poems contained in The Return to Black and White (Tidy-Up Press) was selected by Library Journal as among "The Best of the Small Press Publications." Work in his third book of poems, Words Spoken, Words Unspoken (Chimney Hill Press), was awarded the Cape Rock Prize for Poetry in 1995. His fourth book of poems, East of Omaha, was nominated for a Midland Authors Award in 1999. A fifth collection of poems, Tidal Air, appears from Pecan Grove Press in 2002. His poems also have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. In addition, he has written many film essays and movie reviews.

He was born in New York City and currently resides with his wife and son in Valparaiso, Indiana. He is a professor of American literature and creative writing in the English Department at Valparaiso University, where he serves as the editor of Valparaiso Poetry Review.


PRAISE FOR EDWARD BYRNE'S POETRY COLLECTIONS:

"The world of Edward Byrne's poems is our own world viewed through the wrong end of a telescope: curiously small and urgent. But the minuteness of scope is deceptive.... Particulars explode into universality as through the action of a zoom lens." —John Ashbery

"Edward Byrne's poems are sinewy yet delicate, clear yet atmospheric; the precise character is unpredictable, but they are always moving, always engaging." —Mark Strand

"Reading a poem by Edward Byrne is like emerging at the top of a stadium ramp for a first glimpse of authentically green grass. Byrne's lines restore visibility to objects darkened by over- exposure." —David Lehman


I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm tickled pink to have my work presented in Volume VIII, Number 1 (Fall 2006) of VPR and having had the particular poem in question - "Malinconia" chosen for publication by its editor. Do you think drinking all that green beer had anything to do with it?... Nah!