The Open Face Sandwich.

I've by and large given up doing publicity-posts for every journal I'm published in (because, well, I'm in a lot of journals, and friends don't try to make friends purchase a bunch of shitty lit mags just because one of their special snowflake poems appears on page 72).

This journal, however, deserves special note. Not because I'm in it, but because it's new, it's different, it's beautiful, and it ROCKS, and I want everybody to know it. It's called The Open Face Sandwich and I just got my contributor's copies of the first issue. I was immediately taken in by the lovely design, but then I noticed there were postcards of photos of dead squirrels falling out of it, and book marks, and there were all these haunting centerfolds of dead animals, and then I started reading this long notebook paper reproduction of a handwritten kid's journal from 1992 called "my Gernll!!!!!!!!!!!!" and then I read this amazing essay by Ariana Reines (whose new book The Cow I'm currently reviewing for CutBank) which starts out "I only saw my dad's dick once," and then I started reading this thing called "Ballerina Blunders & a Few Male Danseurs" which outlines every important misstep, embarrassing moment, and faux pas in the history of ballet, and and and.... (!)

So yeah, it seems like every new journal purports to bring its readers writing that's "beyond the pale" or "without borders" or "an eclectic mix of recipes, found objects, translations of translations & bastard-hybrid-belles-lettres-of-all-creeds." Admirable, I guess, but total bullshit. Most of these magazines either get a little whackity-schmackity-DON'T (e.g. The Power Rangers Meet the Lone Ranger: A Tragedy), or they're more dry and staid than POETRY on a bad day--the main difference being that the latter at least manages to evoke some passion and sense of skill as opposed to the ball-shaving, disaffected "efforts" of most of my Po-po-schmo poetical generation.

Anyway, OFS manages to not only avoid these pitfalls but actually genuinely delight and entertain, and look good doing it! Do go buy one. Then, if you're a writer of the strange variety, submit something. They accept e-mail submissions, which I love. If you live in Ann Arbor I'll give you a free copy; they're one of those rare breeds of journals that's both *good* AND sends you, like, twelve copies.

Hooray for a print lit journal I'm not embarrassed to leave on the back of my toilet!

http://openfacesandwich.org/