Polari Journal Issue 2

Polari Journal - Issue 2 - October 2010

Issue Editor: D. J. Baker

Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand -- a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods -- or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values.

- Willa Cather (1873 - 1947)

Willa Cather

Showcase

Featuring poetry by Jonathan Alexander, short fiction by L.A. Fields and an excerpt from Berzoo, a novel by Errol Bray, recent winner of the Clouds of Magellan emerging writers LGBT novel competition.

Jonathan Alexander, PhD, is Professor of English and Chancellor's Fellow at the University of California. His academic work has been at the leading edge of Queer Composition Studies and he is also a creative writer of significant talent.

His publications include, among others, the books Literacy, Sexuality, Pedagogy: Theory and Practice for Composition Studies, Digital Youth: Emerging Literacies on the World Wide Web, Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies (with Deborah Meem & Michelle Gibson) and Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others (co-edited with Karen Yescavage). Jonathan has devoted much of his career to promoting literacy education for participation in pluralistic democracies. He has also maintained and cultivated a naive belief in the power of art to transform.

Here, Polari Journal is pleased to showcase Jonathan's poetry. The poems that follow are 'mash ups' of early translations of Friedrich Nietzsche's Daybreak.

	Alexander-Daybreak.pdf Size : 198.021 Kb Type : pdf

Exit Signs - Short Fiction by L.A. Fields

George, Bruce and Wade and what happens out back of the take-out.

	Fields-Exit-Signs.pdf Size : 207.818 Kb Type : pdf

Bus to Los Angeles - Fiction by Errol Bray

An excerpt from the upcoming novel Berzoo.

	Bray-Berzoo-Excerpt.pdf Size : 175.999 Kb Type : pdf

Museum

Women - Wigs - Wilderness

Featuring the photography of Trista Sordillo.

Trista Sordillo took her first photography class at age 13 and has been photographing ever since. She continued to study photography throughout high school, college and post-college at the School of Visual Arts and the International Centre of Photography. Most of her work in college centered on portraiture and documenting fringe communities. She continues to be drawn to the exploratory nature of documentary photography. Some of her subject material has included the LGBT community, NJ Youth Cheerleading circuit, her family, New Orleans, Asbury Park, the Mississippi Delta, Spain, Argentina, Cambodia and various other locations. Trista has taught photography at the Harvey Milk School and has had her photography published in two books.

Clockwise: Mississippi Delta, Wigstock, San Francisco girls, Nevada.

Fiction

Sweet Nature - Short fiction by Roberto Carlos Ortiz

Amigo Americanos, morenitos and photographs. Brazil, Seville and a distinct lack of kissing.

	Ortiz-Sweet-Nature.pdf Size : 237.618 Kb Type : pdf

Nagasaki - Short fiction by Barry Brennessel

A journey on a train, two nude youths asleep in each others' arms, sketches made in a dark room, and nameless things done for Yen.

	Brennessel-Nagasaki.pdf Size : 307.335 Kb Type : pdf

Irezumi - Short fiction by Dallas Angguish

Tattoos, cherry blossoms and skin. Desire and hospitality are explored amidst the beauty of a Japanese monastery garden.

	Angguish-Irezumi.pdf Size : 318.66 Kb Type : pdf

Prose by Jason Charles

Two concise and delectable stories: A Tiny Band of Hollow and Birthmark.

	Charles-Two-Stories.pdf Size : 256.001 Kb Type : pdf

Bonsai - Short Fiction by B.J. Epstein

Hair as purple as violets, a koi pond and a tuna salad sandwich in a Japanese garden.

	Epstein-Bonsai.pdf Size : 212.873 Kb Type : pdf

Poetry

The Porn Smuggler - Poetry by Jeff Mann

The Porn Smuggler, Ode to New Orleans, Looking for You. Three witty poems from America's South.

	Mann-Porn-Smuggler.pdf Size : 250.504 Kb Type : pdf

Belly Envy - Poetry by Kelly Pilgrim-Byrne

Pregnancy, Sylvia Plath and the (O)ther Mother. Queerly strange threads in three enigmatic poems.

	Pilgrim_Byrne-Belly-Envy.pdf Size : 274.086 Kb Type : pdf

Barfly - Poetry by Natasha Carthew

Barfly, Wired, Just a Girl. Three gorgeous poems from the Cornwall poetess.

	Carthew-Barfly.pdf Size : 195.745 Kb Type : pdf

Black Diamonds - Poetry by Christopher Soden

Black Diamonds, Alphadog, Closer - the fresh language of desire.

	Soden-Black-Diamonds.pdf Size : 244.771 Kb Type : pdf

Bless Me - Poetry by Casey Charles

Bless Me and two other poems: Passing Through Lamu and Generator.

	Charles-Bless-Me.pdf Size : 201.243 Kb Type : pdf

Jean Genet in Norwich - Poetry by Gregory Woods

Jean Genet in Norwich, Wing Three Quarter and Last Resorts.

	Woods-Genet.pdf Size : 237.815 Kb Type : pdf

Essay

Writing the Spirit: Testimony and the Unauthorised Voice in the Queer Spiritual Memoir

An Essay by Victor Marsh

	Marsh-Writing-the-Spirit.pdf Size : 375.045 Kb Type : pdf

Letter to My Children

Creative Non-Fiction by Jeremy Fisher

	Fisher-Letter.pdf Size : 376.294 Kb Type : pdf

Review

The Pharmacopornographic Subject: Beatrice Preciado's Testo Junkie: Sexe, Drogue et Biopolitique

A review essay by Elizabeth Stephens

	Stephens-Testo-Junkie.pdf Size : 376.745 Kb Type : pdf