Tin House Magazine, Volume 18, Issue 2, Winter 2016: #70 Winter Reading

Tin House #70

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

Thaw your icy heart with Tin House this Winter. Pour a mug of hot cocoa and cozy up with new fiction, essays, and poetry from fireside favorites and discover New Voices for the new year.

Genres: Short Stories

225 pages, ebook

Published December 13, 2016

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

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a year after it’s published when no one cares, I finished last winter’s issue!

I’m not an expert on literary journals (there are so many now, who could be?), but I find this is one of the more accessible ones for me. The short stories are usually very good, and I don’t hate all of the poetry, although there are still too many poems like this:

I make my poems;;edgy
By using lots//of rando punctuation%
Is that percent thingy punctuation even,,,,

I in a postprandial malaise a songbird warbles with adulterous melancholy

(Maybe I just don’t get it, probably I just don’t get it, but journals are LOADED with this kind of stuff, and it makes my eyes bleed.)

Short stories:

All 5 short stories were good to great:

“The Tomb of Wrestling” by Jo Ann Beard (good, but overly long and my least favorite)

“Jack London” by Antonya Nelson

“Positive Train Control” by Jim Shepard

“Bodies in Space” by Michael Andreasen

“Zamboni” by Rebecca Makkai

Nelson and Makkai’s tied as my favorites. Makkai takes a tale that is cliche as they come (a hockey mom has an affair with another parent) and makes it fresh and poignant. Shepard somehow writes about railroad safety and our crumbling infrastructure and makes it interesting.

Poetry:

I like the offerings from Ruth Madievsky, Tommy Pico, Gerald Stern, and Miller Oberman. Slightly less than half of the contributors, which seems right.

Other stuff

An interview with author Mark Leyner.

Some book reviews, the biggest name item being Sam Lipsyte’s rave review of a collection of essays by Stanley Elkin.

Now that I see these journal issues are on GR (and thus, as much as I hate to say it, “count”), I’ll probably include more of them on my shelves.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some decent stuff in here, but I just wasn't quite as thrilled as I was by the recent series of issues. Maybe I just had too high of expectations for this one, or perhaps I just read on an off day. Regardless, I wanted a bit more on the whole. I did really get into the Leyner interview though.

[A-ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best issue, for sure, but it did have some gems. Jo Ann Beard's opener "The Tomb of Wresting," had some promise. I loved how it started, a humorous stream of consciousness exploration of how traumatic moments get slowed down, going in and out of past at the moment when a moment turns the tables on her attacker, but it went on for FAR too long. By the time I finished it, my zeal had become hate. "Jack London" by Antonya Nelson was hard to follow in the worst of ways, despite some spunky prose. Things improve by Jim Sheapard's "Positive Train Control," and though I found the history of train operations to be interesting, it also went too long with a pretty uninteresting plot. The two fiction highlights were Micheal Andreasen's "Bodies in Space", a Vonnegut-esque tale of adulterous remorse told though alien abduction, and Rebecca Makkai's "Zamboni" another adulterous, this one of a hockey mom who falls for the father of awkward figure skater. Both make this issue worth it. The conversation with Mark Leyner was a lot fun as well. The poetry was a mixed bag, but I enjoyed Miller Oberman's, Christopher Soto's, and Tommy Pico's offerings.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely one of Tin House's stronger issues. The fiction reverbates, and those of us of a certain age will enjoy the conversation with Mark Leyner.

"The Tomb of Wrestling" was a tour de force and worth the price of purchase alone. I look forward to reading more from Jo Ann Beard. "Jack London" reminds us that freedom is more important than family. "Bodies in Space" is an entertaining sci-fi comedy of errors. "Positive Train Control" and "Zamboni" remind us of where we could end up, should things go horribly awry.

Highly recommended.

[Josiah Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Tin House

[Michael Kitchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Tomb of Wrestling by Jo Ann Beard - 2
Jack London by Anotnya Nelson - 3
Positive Train Control by Jim Shepard - 4
Zamboni by Rebecca Makkai - 4

[Roberto Iacobacci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional reading once again from Tin House. Jim Shepard's Positive Train Control is my favorite in this issue.

[Zardoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best stories were "Positive Train Control" by Jim Shepard and "Zamboni" by Rebecca Makkah.
Poetry wasn't to bad either.

[Sean McSpadden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tin House Winter 2016, Volume 18, Issue 2 fits right into the magazine’s larger aesthetic and approach. In my opinion, Tin House remains the best looking literary magazine on the market. Of course, the magazine’s look doesn’t determine its quality—it’s the words in the magazine that matter most. I will focus my review exclusively on the fiction. The star rating for the magazine only reflects the fiction.

“The Tomb of Wrestling” by Jo Ann Beard
A highly experimental story about a home invasion/robbery. This piece manipulates time at every line break—sometimes to its own detriment. Because it also changes point of view...

To read the full review click here

[Erik Eckel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rebecca Makkai's "Zamboni," by itself, is worth the journal's price. Add Jo Ann Beard's "The Tomb of Wrestling" and Michael Andreasen's "Bodies in Space," and you have a fair collection worthy of cold winter evening reading.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Jo Ann Beard story in particular.

[Danielle Bodnar]

The most memorable piece I remember (having read it over the winter) is the story about the trains. Excellent story. I also liked the one with the hockey mom.