Tin House Magazine, Volume 17, Issue 2, Winter 2015: #66 Winter Reading

Tin House #66

by Win McCormack (Editor), Holly MacArthur (Editor), Rob Spillman (Editor)

225 pages, Magazine

First published December 7, 2015

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

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue of Tin House was meant to evoke the heat, passion, and movement of summer, giving us the energy we need to make it through the long winter months. Overall, it's a solid volume with engaging and interesting essays and fiction. I found much of the poetry to be dense, but I did really like Cornelius Eady's work, and I was interested in Caroline Knox's and Adam Fitzgerald's as well. They worked in imagery with an undercurrent of story that I liked. My favorite pieces were Claire Vaye Watkins' amazing essay "On Pandering," the comic "Everything is Teeth" by Evie Wyld and Joe Sumner (I am officially a fan.), and James' Scudamore's "A Carnival of Masks." Just a solid volume.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fiction in this issue is particularly strong, starting off with Dorothy Allison's _Something Not Unlike Love_, and ending with _Wonders of The Shore_, by Andrea Barrett, both of which are meditations on what love and lust provide in our relationships.

In between, _The Picketer_ is a wry meditation on stubbornness and justice; while _Children_, _Magic City_, _The Leash_. and _A Carnival of Masks_ explore horror and alienation in their many splendored forms.

Highly recommended.

[A-ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an above average issue of Tin House. There weren't too many clunkers, though I really didn't like "Magic City" or the closer "Wonders of the Shore", which I nearly skipped based on the insufferable first three pages. Some writers seem to forget that good writing is more than just interesting sentences. Had a good mix of light and heavy fare. Highlights include, but not are not limited to:

"Something not Unlike Love" by Dorthy Allison. An exploration of a life of infatuations and lust. Was both beautifully written and entertaining. One of the best short stories I've read in a while.

Claire Vaye Watkins' "On pandering" was a thought provoking essay about being a woman in the literature world.

Patrick deWitt's delightfully fun tale about a scorned customer who decides to start a one-man protest.

"A Carnival of Masques" by James Scudamore about an aging poet coming face to face with the choices he made in life.

John Fischer's "The Right Accusation" a bizarre, but entertaining account of being mail-stalked by a series of murder weapons from the game Clue.

[Michael Kitchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Something Not Unlike Love" by Dorothy Allison (5)
"The Picketer" by Patrick deWitt (4)
"Everything is Teeth" by Evie Wyld (3)
"Children" by Helen Phillips(3)
"Magic City" by Martha McPhee (3)
"The Leash" by Drew Ciccolo (5)
"The Carnival of Masks" by James Scudamore (abandoned)
"Wonders of the Shore" by Andrea Barrett (abandoned)

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Includes Claire Vaye Watkins' On Pandering, which changed my life.

Here are the lampposts, here is the single-screen movie theater. It’s all an architecture of pandering. It’s for them.

(Emphasis in original.)

[Gwendolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic issue all around, and it's worth picking this up just for Claire Vaye Watkins much-talked-about essay "On Pandering."

[Jennifer Schnakenberg]

O Andrea Barrett!