The Hollins
Critic
A leading American literary journal, The Hollins Critic enters its 48th year in 2011 with essays on writers like Deborah Warren by Alfred P. Nicol; Hal Sirowitz by Liz Rosenberg; Larry Levis by Julia Johnson; Ronald Firbank by Peter Dempsey; and Elizabeth Bowen by Pat Laurence.
The Hollins Critic, published five times a year, presents the first serious surveys of the whole bodies of contemporary writers’ work, with complete checklists. In past issues, you’ll find essays on such writers as John Engels (by David Huddle), James McCourt (by David Rollow), Jane Hirshfield (by Jeanne Larsen), Edwidge Danticat (by Denise Shaw), Vern Rutsala (by Lewis Turco), Sarah Arvio (by Lisa Williams) and Milton Kessler (by Liz Rosenberg).
The Hollins Critic also offers brief reviews
of books you want to know about and poetry by poets both
new and established. And every issue has a cover portrait
by Susan Avishai M.A. '02.
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Jason Shinder
December 2009
Critic |
Dara Wier
October 2009
Critic |
Christine Garren
April 2009
Critic |
Kelly Cherry
February 2009
Critic |
December 2011 Issue Excerpt
"Hal Sirowitz: The Stand-up Poet King of Queens"
By Liz Rosenberg
With the publication of his seminal book of poems, Mother Said, in 1996, Hal Sirowitz changed the sound of American poetry. As is the case with many of art’s most radical experiments—consider the seventeenth century invention of the haiku—it’s easy to feel as if something simply happened spontaneously, growing like a weed in a garden of flowers. Yet in Sirowitz’s seemingly casual and offhand poems, free verse poetry let its guard down and entered a new phase of democratization. The style of Mother Said, and of other books that followed—notably his Father Said and My Therapist Said—concocts a brilliant blend of monologue, colloquialism, Zen koans, lyricism, memoir, and Borscht Belt stand up comedy. The poems are deceptively simple. One has the sense not so much of reading poetry as of eavesdropping on something intensely personal and private. Reading one of the painfully funny, achingly honest poems in Mother Said feels like inadvertently listening in on a conversation between mother and child in the next dressing room over. "You’re a disgrace to the Jews, / Mother said, if you don’t tuck in your shirt."
While Hal Sirowitz writes in the classic tradition of the persona poem, it is a poetry utterly without apparent artifice, the voice of those nearest if not always dearest, those dire parental warnings forever haunting our brains. Nowhere is this clearer than in the poems of Mother Said, which put a new spin on the old cautionary tales of children’s literature.
Don’t swim in the ocean while it’s raining,
Mother said. Lightning can hit the water,
& you’ll be paralyzed. You don’t like
to eat vegetables. Imagine having
to spend the rest of your life being one.
"Damaged Body"
Cover portrait © Susan Avishai 2011
NewPages.com has reviewed the December 2010 issue of The Hollins Critic. Read review.
Writer's Guidelines
The Hollins Critic reads poetry submissions from September 1 to December 15 each year. Poetry must be submitted to The Hollins Critic using the link below. There are no rules about style or subject. One to five poems may be submitted.
The Critic pays $25.00 per poem, upon publication. All rights revert to the author following publication, but if the poem is reprinted elsewhere, the Critic should be credited.
Besides poetry, the Critic publishes an essay on a contemporary author in each issue, and book reviews as space permits. The Critic does not accept unsolicited essays. Rarely do we accept unsolicited book reviews. When a review is published, the author receives a copy of the issue, and two copies are sent to the book’s publisher. Only poetry may be submitted through the link below.
The Critic does not publish fiction.
Click here to submit to the Critic.
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