The Hollins
Critic
A leading American literary journal, The Hollins Critic enters its 45th year in 2008 with essays on writers on writers like Milton Kessler by Liz Rosenberg, Sylvia Engdahl by Nicholas Birns, and Marie Howe by David Huddle.
The Hollins Critic, published five times a year,
presents the first serious surveys of the whole bodies
of contemporary writers work, with complete checklists.
Youll find essays on such writers as Irving Feldman
(by David Slavitt), Rebecca Goldstein (by Emily Budick),
Nancy Willard (by Jeanne Larsen), Carolyn Kizer (by Henry
Taylor), Antler (by Howard Nelson), Russell Hoban (by
Earl Rovit) and Ted Hughes (by Harriet Zinnes).
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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David
Stacton
December 2002
Critic |
Mary
Ward Brown
October 2003
Critic |
Leonard
Nathan
December 2003
Critic |
Lee
Smith
February 2004
Critic |
April 2008 Issue Excerpt
"That was Czgowchwz, her story, history:" The Fictions of James McCourt
By David Rollow

This essay discusses James McCourt’s six published works of fiction (a seventh will appear in the fall), using Queer Street, McCourt’s only directly autobiographical/nonfictional book, to provide further comment on the fiction, since it offers a kind of key.
Mawrdew Czgowchwz
Mawrdew Czgowchwz comes to America after she escapes from behind the Iron Curtain, flying solo and crash-landing a prewar plane in the Place de la Concorde in Paris on Bastille Day. As one of the narrators of Now Voyagers later puts it, “There was a Cold War aura about her that made her story more interesting than rivalry at the opera.” Her grand entrance is the first of many (and grand exits, too) in the novel that bears her “unpronounceable” name. (Her fans, The Secret Seven, declare that it is pronounced “gorgeous,” so it is.) The Secret Seven teach her English. “Ignorant of her true origin, she seemed to be remembering, although in almost anguished reluctance. She spoke English in just three weeks. . . it was thought uncanny, but no more.” Here the major theme of the novel is introduced offhandedly.
The novel tracks the pattern of the star’s career: discovery, triumph, crisis, collapse, comeback, and apotheosis. In her debut at the Old Metropolitan Opera House Czgowchwz presents herself as an “oltrano,” capable of a humanly impossible vocal range and repertory of roles a nonce-word that suggests variously alteration, alternate, altered alto, and other(ed). Her triumph intensifies a rivalry with the fading Morgana Neri, one of whose fans lays a voodoo-style curse on Czgowchwz by stealing a lock of her hair and putting it on a poppet-puppet that enacts a curse; during the Liebestod in Tristan und Isolde, mysteriously singing in Irish, she experiences what the old house doctor calls a “total nervous collapse.” She awakens fully amnesiac she has “forgotten all her roles,” as well as her identity, and is able to speak only Irish, not among the languages she is known to speak. That is, she has ceased to be Mawrdew Czgowchwz, but is not yet herself. Moreover, the novel that invented her vanishes with her memory it is part of what she leaves behind.
Cover portrait © Susan Avishai 2008
Writer's Guidelines
The Hollins Critic will not read poetry submissions again until September 1, 2008. Submissions received at other times will be returned unread.
Poetry submitted to The Hollins
Critic should be typed
or word processed. There are no rules about style or
subject. One to five poems should be submitted to Cathryn
Hankla, Poetry Editor, P.O. Box 9538, Hollins University,
Roanoke, VA 24020. The Critic cannot reply without a
self-addressed stamped envelope. We do not accept e-mail
submissions.
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.
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