PRISM International

I read a quarterly literary journal called PRISM International, more specifically, the Fall 2007 issue. It is based out of Vancouver, Canada and is published by the University of British Columbia. PRISM is best known for publishing fiction and poetry, but it will publish other works of literary arts as well, including original dramas and creative non-fiction. At a glance, the value of the journal seems to be moderate. The pages of the journal are not the best quality, but they're not exactly made of pulp. The entire journal is printed in a sort of booklet form with a colored cover. The cover features different artwork each issue which include sketches and photographs. The actual cost of a single journal is ten dollars while subscription can go for either twenty-eight or forty-six dollars depending if the subscription is for one or two years for an individual. There is no announcement of a project or vision, nor did my issue have a specific theme or special issue. The journal does come with a well organized website, the url: www.prismmagazine.ca.

Although there was no specific theme to the issue that I read, there were some similarities between the short stories that I read. They all seemed to have some quality of death within them that led to a revelation or important ant human relationships/interactions. This similarity was difficult to find since each story were completely unique and the author's own. As for the poetry written in the issue, they all seemed to have no similarities between other than they were both published in PRISM International. The writers who contributed all ranged in experience. There were several award winners, but there were also first time published writer featured. Some other places that these writers had been published in include Coach House, The Malchat Review, the New Quarterly, and the Magenta Foundation. This difference in experience did not hinder the quality of the material any, and I even found that my favorite story was by one of the first time published writers.

My favorite story was called "Some Light Down," by S. Kennedy Sobol. It was about a young girl named "Cookie" who was reviewing the several murders/missing people reports in her hometown, including her best friend Anna's case. The story starts off by listing the different people cases and then goes into memories Cookie had with Anna. The chronology of the story does not go straight, but there is still an obvious progression and flow in the story. Cookie also includes recordings of the interviews she taped of the people who knew the victims or missing person after she learns that Anna's body was found. What I liked about this story was that it wasn't a mystery or who-done-it story with the main character discovering every detail of the crime. Instead, Cookie sought to discover who were the people who were killed or went missing. It was more so a story about people and their lives. It was an interesting change on the usual mystery story and humanized a possibly alien police cases.

My least favorite story was "When it Comes" by Justin Varata. It was about a person who is at a zoo and sees an old dying pig. It reminds him of a time when he was a child and wanted a pet pig for Christmas. He asks his father, who seems to be tired of life after hearing that his younger brother had died. The child gets a toy pig instead, which he leaves outside in the rain one time. The doll gets ruined and the man returns present day at the zoo. He decides to visit the pig one more time before leaving. When he reaches the pig's pen, two zookeepers are working hard to remove the dead body out of the pen. I disliked this story because there didn't seem to have a well thought out plan. I thought the story might be about the person's father, but there wasn't enough that related to the father. Then I thought it might be about death, but I didn't walk away with that feeling. All in all, I didn't see any purpose in the story and didn't take anything away from it after reading it.

I might pick up another copy of PRISM International some other time. I enjoyed reading the different materials inside its covers. I think I would let myself be published almost anywhere, but as to if PRISM would publish me, I'm not sure if they would. I don't get the feeling that the short stories that I write would fit with PRISM's usual stories, but then again I could be completely wrong. I could see either Erin or Alice writing something that was published in PRISM however.