Menacing Hedge Fall 2011 Edition
The fall edition of Menacing Hedge is graced with the work of fifteen brilliant writers, one talented young photographer and the artwork of an acclaimed pop surrealist. Wallwork offers up a mouth-watering story of high society cannibals and their shopping dilemmas. Thompson brings a series of research-based poems shining an unblinking eye on the victims of Ted Bundy followed by the chilling Anonymous poem. Conroy explores the physicality of bodies, the making and unmaking of monsters, and the upkeep of what is one part awful and one part necessary. Poyner takes us to an alternative universe filled with the delightful but somewhat treacherous creatures, the Orikind. Reale’s piece, Learn(ed), describes the subtleties of an abusive relationship and its precarious underpinnings. Budden’s work, the Jolly Butcher’s Lament, enters into the land of magical realism where the chief creature in a painting enters a pub and creates well-deserved mayhem. Doreski’s poems explore the power of place, underground houses, haunted spaces, and a village collapsed.
Dickinson presents an interview with the actress Jean Seberg, which manages to span her lifetime – her role as Joan of Arc, her time in Paris, and herMidwest beginnings – with imagery and memories so searing, it feels as if Dickinson is channeling Seberg’s very spirit. Altman takes us from the Qing Dynasty and a savvy snuffbox and unwise concubine, to a monstrous man whose actions resonate in modern Chinatowns, and then to the blue gas of God, with images that flex and strain seeking to escape the page. Bashaar transports the reader to uncertain corners of places: love, diners, and poetry readings in restrooms, her voice crashing through everything, like mad birds through glass. Rainwater-Lites embarks into poverty, the concrete minutiæ of everyday life, transcending the mundane to find beauty in its particular painfulness, while also exploring the connectivity between unlikely individuals. Connell’s Metropolitan Hotel describes one man’s journey from boredom to violent enlightenment, through a series of bizarre encounters with a mysterious woman.
Randall and Shapiro have borrowed old seventies diagrams from the Exploratorium and added their own comments, creating images and words that compel the reader to re-explore formal conventional wisdoms and ideas of human relationships. Dexter’s piece, The Nudist Cover-up, takes us from a child’s discovery of his teacher’s floating corpse to a strange ritualistic covering of the same child’s body with sand. Bennett’s images are filled with poems and stories, from a shadow on a trailer to chilled red feet over wire. Grindley puts us in the feet of The God of Minor Inconvenience, whose power may be limited but whose repercussions are vast, reminding the reader of how even the smallest of inconveniences can ultimately render devastation. Finally, Scott Musgrove conjures and paints imaginary beasts, which live and breathe and leap from the page, given pulse and breath and blood.