What do you think?
Rate this book
Tin House #74
Tin House Magazine, Volume 19, Issue 2, Winter 2017: #74 Winter Reading
In her short story “The Wolves,” Kseniya Melnik blends Russian fairy tales with Stalin-era paranoia to bring us closer to the feeling of Russian history while at the same time shining light on the dark underpinnings of our current moment. In an excerpt from her forthcoming novel, Red Clocks, Leni Zumas gives us a world where abortion has been outlawed, creating a state that feels like a lucid dream. In this issue we have more poetry than usual, as it seems contemporary poets are especially attuned to the productive ambiguity frequency and now is one of those zeitgeist moments when we most need them. Paisley Rekdal, in her poem “Marsyas,” writes that Apollo “never understands what he plays, / knowing only how his hand / trembles over the plucked muscle: / adding, he thinks, something lower to the notes, / something sweeter, and infinitely strange.”
224 pages, Paperback
Published December 26, 2017
34 people want to read
About the author
Win McCormack
100 books10 followersWin 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 9, 2018
The non-fiction pieces in this quarter's issue are incredibly boring- one focuses too heavily on the practice of horse breaking, making the job seem incredibly tedious and taxing, and the other is a generic "memoir-esque" piece focusing on yet another author returning to his/her ancestral homeland and connecting to the land via some inanimate object, with this specific one being tea. However, the poetry in this issue is very, very strong, and the excerpt from Leni Zumas' upcoming novel 'Red Clocks' and Seth Fried's short story are amazing, so much to the point that I now have ordered Fried's collection of short stories and a copy of Zumas' novel.
July 8, 2018
This issue was primarily focused on poetry, which left me a bit sad as I read Tin House for its prose. There were some good poems, but many were a bit lackluster. I enjoyed Ada Limon, Craig Beaven, Bianca Stone, Paisley Rekdal, and Rick Barot's ("A Poem as Long as California" was particularly worth mentioning"). The Mark Steinmetz photography feature of various slices of life in 1980s LA was great, filled with a strange humor and underlying sadness. The slim fiction pickings were mostly good. Leni Zumas's story was quirky, but I don't remember much else about it. Sofi Stambo's tale a crazy co-worker was fun. I also liked Tania Jame's surreal "The Cage". The language of Delany Nolan's "At the Center" was enjoyable, even if the semi-sci-fi tale of world that had moved beyond sleep via drugs was a bit meh. The true highlight was "Mendelssohn" Seth Fried's wacky tale of a retired inventor versus a crafty raccoon in the early-90s. This alone was worth the price of the issue.
March 12, 2018
A beautifully put together collection of literature. Beautiful both aesthetically and in the choices of literary works. This literary magazine has it all: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Photographs, and Book reviews. I liked it so much, I sent in the subscriber card. Looking forward to the next issue.
May 28, 2018
I really enjoy what TIN HOUSE does and am glad I have this subscription. The stories and essays are usually entertaining and very well written. Many of the poems are wonderful as well.
Thanks TIN HOUSE!
Thanks TIN HOUSE!
January 4, 2018
Eh, this was okay. It was all good but most didn’t really grab me much. The best was the photography section. Still, solid work. I just wasn’t hugely thrilled.
May 22, 2019
This Tin House carried stories with a satirical edge to them. The ones that stayed away from the dystopic and satirized reality worked the best. A number of these stories were only a few pages while others extended nearly twenty. They ranged from highly experimental to relatively traditional. The Winter 2017 Tin House had one particular stand out story...
To read the rest of this review, click here.
To read the rest of this review, click here.
July 10, 2018
Great issue!
March 17, 2024
Mendelssohn is everything
Read
October 1, 2018Standouts for me are below.
"She Was Warned" by Leni Zumas
"She is submitting her area to all kinds of invasion without understanding a fraction of what's being done to it. This seems, suddenly, terrible." (46)
"She drives west on Highway 22 into dark hills dense with hemlock, fir, and spruce. Oregon has the best trees in America, soaring and shaggy winged, alpine sinister. Her tree gratitude mutes her doctor resentment. Two hours form his officer, her car crests the cliff road and the church steeple just into view. The rest of town follows, hunched in rucked hills sloping to the water. Smoke coils from the pub chimney. Fishing nets pile on the shore. In Newville you can watch the seat eat the ground, over and over, unstopping. Millions of abyssal thalassic acres. The sea does not ask permission or wait for instruction. It doesn't suffer from not knowing what on earth, exactly, it is meant to do." (47)
"Or does desire come from some creaturely place, precivilized, some biological throb that floods her bloodways with the message Make more of yourself! To repeat, not to improve. It doesn't matter to the ancient throb if she does good works in this short life--if she publishes, for instance, a magnificent book on Eivor Minervudottir that would give people pleasure and knowledge. The throb simply wants another human machine that can, in turn, make another." (54)
"Mendelssohn" by Seth Fried
"Wallace was a sixty-five-year-old retired gym teacher who had been on his way out for his morning run. he was tall and still athletic-looking, with a handlebar mustache and a head of white hair worn in a tight crew cut. His wife, also a retired teacher, had the same haircut and Olive had once observed that the mustache was essential in telling the two apart." (81)
"Communications" by Sofi Stambo
"We work on the fifth floor Communications Department. It's a typical office: very little space, a lot of people sitting on top of each other. We shoot emails, execute reports and kill invoices. It's a war zone so it's very important to exchange pleasantries while talking behind each other's backs. You need to be able to produce a pleasantry at any given moment." (126)
"At the Center" by Delaney Nolan
"Every few months he turns up and acts like we have some kind of heartbreak to resolve." (193)
"People have nightmares about it--waking up to find that their children are grown, the world has fixed itself while they were gone, everyone has grown up happy and well-mannered without them. 'We can prescribe something for that.'" (199)
"'I feel sorry for them. It's bonkers! Not even a nap? All these people, up awake all night. How can you keep it together when you know what's goin' on all the time? Like--how can you stand it, not being able to give up at least once a day?" (200)
"She Was Warned" by Leni Zumas
"She is submitting her area to all kinds of invasion without understanding a fraction of what's being done to it. This seems, suddenly, terrible." (46)
"She drives west on Highway 22 into dark hills dense with hemlock, fir, and spruce. Oregon has the best trees in America, soaring and shaggy winged, alpine sinister. Her tree gratitude mutes her doctor resentment. Two hours form his officer, her car crests the cliff road and the church steeple just into view. The rest of town follows, hunched in rucked hills sloping to the water. Smoke coils from the pub chimney. Fishing nets pile on the shore. In Newville you can watch the seat eat the ground, over and over, unstopping. Millions of abyssal thalassic acres. The sea does not ask permission or wait for instruction. It doesn't suffer from not knowing what on earth, exactly, it is meant to do." (47)
"Or does desire come from some creaturely place, precivilized, some biological throb that floods her bloodways with the message Make more of yourself! To repeat, not to improve. It doesn't matter to the ancient throb if she does good works in this short life--if she publishes, for instance, a magnificent book on Eivor Minervudottir that would give people pleasure and knowledge. The throb simply wants another human machine that can, in turn, make another." (54)
"Mendelssohn" by Seth Fried
"Wallace was a sixty-five-year-old retired gym teacher who had been on his way out for his morning run. he was tall and still athletic-looking, with a handlebar mustache and a head of white hair worn in a tight crew cut. His wife, also a retired teacher, had the same haircut and Olive had once observed that the mustache was essential in telling the two apart." (81)
"Communications" by Sofi Stambo
"We work on the fifth floor Communications Department. It's a typical office: very little space, a lot of people sitting on top of each other. We shoot emails, execute reports and kill invoices. It's a war zone so it's very important to exchange pleasantries while talking behind each other's backs. You need to be able to produce a pleasantry at any given moment." (126)
"At the Center" by Delaney Nolan
"Every few months he turns up and acts like we have some kind of heartbreak to resolve." (193)
"People have nightmares about it--waking up to find that their children are grown, the world has fixed itself while they were gone, everyone has grown up happy and well-mannered without them. 'We can prescribe something for that.'" (199)
"'I feel sorry for them. It's bonkers! Not even a nap? All these people, up awake all night. How can you keep it together when you know what's goin' on all the time? Like--how can you stand it, not being able to give up at least once a day?" (200)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews