JAAM 27 Ed. Ingrid Horrocks (JAAM Publishing Collective, 2009) Sub: $24 for 3 issues
Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle
I began reading JAAM 27 while travelling across the Tasman Sea, which seemed appropriate as the theme of the issue was wandering. Ingrid Horrocks, the guest editor, asked for "work that features literal wanderers and travellers...[as well as] works that digress in creative ways from narrative, argument, or genre". Horrocks received about 400 submissions, which is incredible and wonderful, and this issue features work by both emerging and experienced writers. For example, we have Pat White, who will be the 2010 resident writer at Wellington's Randell Cottage, and Tina Makereti, who won the non-fiction category of the Manhire Prize for Creative Science writing last year.
When you wander you are leaving from, and arriving at, a certain place. The majority of the work in this issue conveys a strong sense of place or setting. The poetry section takes us from Ohau Bay to Great Barrier Island, to memories of Giza, up ‘North' and for ‘A Walk in the Park'. Coastal environments are frequent backdrops. There is a distinct NZ flavour with many references to specific landmarks, flora and Maori place names: "Maui hooked the fish/ right at this point/ right here". (‘The Sinews of Ohau Bay', by Keith Westwater). On one hand this was good because it reflected NZ, but on the other hand it made some of the poems feel too domestic and confined.
Many of the poems have excellent cadence and fluidity, using long lines and enjambment. The idea of flight weaves throughout this section. Two poems which stand out are Sue Fitchett's ‘Wing walking', a tribute to aerial stuntwoman Jessie Woods, and Siobhan Harvey's ‘Birds', which talks about leaving one's home country. Majella Cullinane's ‘Exile' conveyed similar sentiments to Harvey's, and was also a good read. I enjoyed Robert McLean's poems, especially ‘Poem', emulating the talky style of Frank O' Hara - the poem being a homage to him.
The creative nonfiction section opens with Martin Edmond's interesting excerpt from ‘The Thousand Ruby Galaxy', a piece to re-read and ponder. It is placed in the creative non-fiction area, but we travel to a planet with "two violet suns ... one is the sun of forgetfulness and the other the sun of memory". (Perhaps this magical place is metaphorical...) "Samsara has asked me here in order to remember the forgotten and also to forget the remembered. This is what is called love".
Helen Lehndorf skilfully wanders between the past and present in her piece about motherhood. Even her title employs a wandering quality - a sprawling 42 words - which made me smile. Memories, from childhood and adulthood, appear in both the creative non-fiction and fiction sections. For instance, Ian Richards recalls the safe and simple days of his childhood in ‘Cycling for Safety: A Memoir'. In the fiction section, Kirsty Gunn, Kelly Joseph, Michele Powles and Susan Gendall also use memory to tell a story, creating absorbing narratives. Three of the stories use the motif of snow which is interesting. Most of the stories have one narrator with a strong consistent tone and voice, although Tina Makereti's story alternates between different viewpoints with ease. Artistic images by Mike Ting are included in JAAM 27 as well - strange, unsettling, interesting - I kept coming back to them and studying them, noticing tiny details which I hadn't previously. The image on the cover by Rachel Walker, ‘Falling through time', is fantastic too, one of the best JAAM covers I've seen for a while.
Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle is a 19 year old student at Auckland University. She was the featured poet for Poetry NZ #39.
