The American Poetry Review

When looking for a literary journal to review, I selected The American Poetry Review. With its large size and blue and orange complimentary colors of the cover, it was aesthetically pleasing enough to pick up and skim through. After looking through the journal and reading a few of the pieces, I decided it would be a good one to review. World Poetry, Inc. is a non -profit corporation located in Philadelphia, PA and publishes The American Poetry Review bimonthly. The website of the journal can be found by going to http://www.aprweb.org. One of the main reasons I enjoyed this journal was because of the variety of pieces found inside. Not only is there poetry to read, but also writing columns, poetry critiques, new poetry from writers, letters, and advertisements. All of the advertisements have to do with poetry or writing. There are advertisements dealing with conferences, seminars available, various poetry series, and college programs for writers, etc. I almost bypassed this journal at first because it was larger and looked like a newspaper- the paper was the same as newspapers, and the journal was colorless inside with just black and white fonts and pictures. Although the journal seemed very informal at first, the large size and complimentary colors distinguished it from the rest.
I really enjoy the way that each poet provides more than one poem for their submission; it makes it easier to notice their style and content, and look for other themes throughout the poems. The fact that small bios and pictures of the authors are included in the journal is great, although the bios are rather small. I wish that the editors had made the fold larger because I could hardly see the bios. It makes me wonder how many people actually stopped and read them.
This journal consists of primarily poetry, and many themes seem to emerge throughout the work. I noticed many themes of sickness, health ailments, death, and family. There are sexual themes as well. All of the poems seem so personal to each author; I really admire when people can write so freely about personal events or feelings. Although I’m sure many of the poems weren’t easy to write, the courage that it takes to do that is commendable.
The first poem I noticed when I flipped open the journal was a poem called “Nostalgia” by David Rivard. Although it was not my favorite poem, the fact that the first line reads “What to do now with the nostalgia for first handjobs” certainly makes readers pay attention. “Nostalgia” served to be a humorous and entertaining poem, but my favorite poem was by Crystal Anne Williams entitled “How To Become a Black Woman (while being/having been raised by a white woman)”. I was first drawn to it by the title, and wondered what this woman had to say about it. The reasons are listed numerically down the page, each reason consisting of at least two lines. Many of the lines conveyed the discrimination Williams felt as a child and young adult who had been adopted by a white woman. Throughout the chronological style, Williams takes readers through her life, highlighting the painful events she endured, and coming to the conclusion that her mother was a wonderful woman who did an amazing job raising her. Now that Williams’ mother is dead, she realizes this and almost pleads forgiveness at the end, showing readers how much she loved her mother even though she hadn’t realized it while growing up.
Overall, I really liked the way this journal was not strictly comprised of poems, but added a variety of other things such as letters, critiques, and advertisements. The advertisements served as a good way to break up the different pieces, and served as a way for readers to learn about opportunities going on in the writing world.