Light Quarterly 55

The Winter 2006-2007 issue of Light Quarterly features Max Gutmann. His poems are quite funny, but the interview with him is even funnier:

"Every poem should have something to teach us. The capital of Venezuela for instance."

"I write poetry because poems are like children—only you don't have to deal with soiled diapers or spend an arm and a leg sending them to college."

"In times of great social upheaval, people will continue to turn to poetry in their search for answers. ... That or alcohol."

L.Q. asked, "How is writing for children different than writing for adults?" M.G. answered, "You mean other than the obvious, going light on the obscenities, that sort of thing?"

*

Melissa Balmain's "Your Rejection Slip, Annotated" deserves special mention, as does Amit Majmudar's "Phone Tree." I was also delighted to read that Richard Wakefield's East of Early Winters won the Richard Wilbur Award for 2006 and has been published by the University of Evansville Press (following in the footsteps of another Light contributor, A. E. Stallings).

And Gutmann's There Was a Young Girl from Verona: A Limerick Cycle Based on the Complete Dramatic Works of Shakespeare is available from Doggerel Daze.