Tin House Magazine, Volume 16, Issue 2, Winter 2014: #62 Winter Reading

Tin House #62

by Win McCormack (Editor), Joy Williams, Alejandra Zambra

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” Chekhov must’ve been happy when he wrote that. And why are we happy to keep pushing that boulder up the literary hill when we know that it is just going to roll back down and we’re going to have to start all over again? Because putting out issue after issue truly does make us happy. We believe that great writing is as essential to our well-being as bread and wine and a roaring fire. It is also an honor and a thrill. A thrill to be surprised time and again, even from work that comes from beyond the grave. Frank Stanford, the gritty Arkansas poet nicknamed the “swamprat Rimbaud,” died nearly forty years ago, but recently a cache of unpublished gems surfaced and we’re delighted to share them with you. Then there is the family of Tin House writers we’ve long known and who never fail to dazzle us with their ability to show us the world anew. In this issue Joy Williams channels the spiritualist Georges Gurdjieff visiting the Arizona childhood home of Susan Sontag and Ursula K. Le Guin leads us into a brutally unforgiving desert in her parable “The Jar of Water.” Any slings and arrows of outrageous submissions are worth it when you get to read new poetry from Dorothea Lasky and Richard Siken. Throw another log on the fire and join us in forgetting whether it is winter or summer.

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

Win McCormack is an American publisher and editor from Oregon.

He is editor-in-chief of Tin House magazine and Tin House Books, the former publisher of Oregon Magazine, and founder and treasurer of MediAmerica, Inc. He serves on the board of directors of the journal New Perspectives Quarterly. His political and social writings have appeared in Oregon Humanities, Tin House, The Nation, The Oregonian, and Oregon Magazine. McCormack's investigative coverage of the Rajneeshee movement was awarded a William Allen White Commendation from the University of Kansas and the City and Regional Magazine Association. His latest book, You Don’t Know Me: A Citizen's Guide to Republican Family Values, examines the sex scandals of Republican politicians who espouse "moral values."

As a political activist, McCormack served as Chair of the Oregon Steering Committee for Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign. He is chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon's President's Council and a member of the Obama for President Oregon Finance Committee. McCormack was also chosen as Alternate Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He currently serves on the Oregon Council for the Humanities and the Oregon Tourism Commission. Additionally, McCormack sits on the Board of Overseers for Emerson College, and is a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Liberty Hill Foundation

Reviews

[A-ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one better than the previous issue. Not all the stories were amazing, but most had admirable qualities. "The Jar of Water" by Ursula K. Le Guin felt like it should have been more than it was, but I went along for the ride. Alejandro Zambra's offering was well written (I love the sound of his prose), but the story itself was lacking. Dean Bakopoulos's list of regrets were fantastic, hilarious, even though the story lacked a strong plot. The best story to me was "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" by Rebecca Makkai. It tackled a lot of conflicts in a very vibrant and entertaining story filled with complex characters. None of the poetry did it for me, but I only read Tin House for the prose anyway.

[Jason McKinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. I was impressed by most of the stories here, in particular, Rebecca Makkai's K-I-S-S-I-N-G. I'm not the biggest poetry fan, but I found quite a few of the poems here quite good. This is my first issue of Tin House and I'm looking forward to my next one.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic edition. The John Koethe poems, "The Physical Eternal" and "Miss Heaton", are quite powerful. "Kissing", "The Waking", "Too Few To Mention", "In Any Light", "The Jar of Water", "The Point of Roughness" - all superb.

[Troy Ketch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent stories by Ursula Le Guin, Josh Weil, and others. This one is worth getting.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great issue overall with an excellent story by Ursula Le Guin

[gillianmarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great issue... my faves were:

The Jar of Water - Ursula K. LeGuin
The Point of Roughness - Josh Weil
In Any Light, By Any Name - Alia Volz