Skanky Possum

Skanky Possum was a twice-a-year poetry journal and small book-publishing imprint begun in Austin, Texas that operated between 1998 and 2012.

History and profile

Skanky Possum was first published in Fall 1998.[1] Curated by Hoa Nguyen and her husband, Dale Smith,[2] the imprint published American poetry. Discussing small poetry journals, Linh Dinh observes, "Although most of these are ephemeral, appearing for only a few issues, with tiny circulations, their existence invigorates American literature."[3]

This 11 issue staple-bound magazine published four poems selected by Robert Creeley for the 2002 The Best American Poetry series.[4] "In poetry circles, their magazine is highly regarded," Crispin Jessa wrote in Bookslut.[5] Poems by Amiri Baraka, Clayton Eshleman, Robert Kelly, Linh Dinh, Eileen Myles, Kenward Elmslie, Alice Notley, Anselm Hollo and Diane di Prima were published.[6]

The annual circulation of the magazine was 300 to 500 copies.[5] Smith and Nguyen also published several poetry books under the Skanky Possum imprint including titles by Tom Clark, Kristin Prevallet and Sotere Torregian.[7]

Skanky Possum ceased publication in 2012.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ "New American Literary Magazines" (PDF). NYPL. 2002. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  2. ^ Paul Hoover; Nguyen Do (29 December 2011). Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry. Perseus Books Group. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-57131-867-1. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. ^ Poetic Invention
  4. ^ [1] Web page for The Best American Poetry Series 2002, four of the 75 poems in that year's volume were from Skanky Possum, selected by Robert Creeley
  5. ^ a b [2] Crispin, Jessa, "'It is kind of psychotic to write poetry': an interview with the founders of Skanky Possum", Bookslut, Retrieved January 26, 2007[dead link‍]
  6. ^ See magazine Web site
  7. ^ "Skanky Possum Publications". www.skankypossum.com. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  8. ^ Arisa White; Rosebud Ben-Oni. "October / Being projection-able". Kore Press. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.