Tin House Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2000: #5 Private

Tin House #5

by Win McCormack (Editor), Kevin Canty

FICTION Kevin CantyRED DRESS But everything after that was in code, ambiguous, the silences full of unasked questions. Sarah TowersBLACK WIZARD "Gerard, what the hell are you doing?" Nancy ReismanILLUMINATION The fantasies multiply, despite Lucia's long hemlines and safe necklines and careful office behavior. NEW VOICES Ben DoyleRECESS IN THE FOREST THE WAR IS OVER SATELLITE CONVULSIONS Max LudingtonTHAW For the first time in about half a year the slow, muscular body of his addiction began to stir in him. Allison DubinskyPLAYING DEAD POETRY Donald HallHER GARDEN Tomaž ŠalamunBOSPORUS SONNET OF A FACE Gardener McFallDESIRE Julio MarzánAUNT MERCEDES AND PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS Bei DaoTHE OLD CASTLE LEAVING HOME CALL IN MEMORY With an introduction by Eliot Weinberger Edward NoblesINTERSTATE THE BODY Jane HirschfieldIN PRAISE OF COLDNESS BLUE WINDOW FEATURES KEATS, THE PRE-RAPHAELITES AND THE TORIES Andrew Motion celebrates John Keats. SYLVIA PLATH'S JOURNALS Long the subject of intense speculation, the poet speaks for herself in her unabridged journals. INTERVIEW/PROFILE HA JIN The Chinese émigré and winner of this year's National Book Award for his novel 'Waiting' talks with Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais about the uncertainty and risk of writing in an adopted language. PILGRIMAGES Ann HoodLITTLE AUDREY The "Victim's Soul" of Worcester. Jane AvrichZANZIBAR It is here that he intends to find you again.

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

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

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Whoops. This should have been for vol. 7, Number 1, not vol. 2. Sorry.]

I’ve let all my magazine subscriptions go because I can’t read them as well as all the books I’m longing to devote my reading time to. But I’ve suddenly got a lull — no editing work and a lag in my library reserve list where the next book seems to be forever “in transit.” So I decided to go through the Tin House magazine issues that have been waiting for me to get to them since 2005.

I haven’t and won’t read all of any issue, but I’m reading whatever calls to me, and in this issue it’s a short story called “No One Here But Us Chickens” by Steve Almond. Wonderful! A psychiatrist gets buck naked and has imaginary sessions with himself and the other doctors in his practice to find the naked truth of himself. It’s imaginative, sad, and funny. A funny that appeals to my love of the raunchy:

"That’s something else we can explore, obviously."

"To be clear, I’m not suggesting that I want to have an ‘affair’ with your wife, because fundamentally, I doubt she’s capable of any sort of deeper intimacy, given that she married you. But I would like to fuck her, perhaps a little savagely."

"This is good, Ray, to talk like this."

Oss felt a little pocket of gas shift in his belly. He released a lengthy, percolating fart into the itchy cushions, then got up and, with his back still to McCafferty, farted again.

I hate to add to my to read list, but Steve Almond is hard to ignore after reading this short story.