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Confrontation Magazine Tackles "The
End of Literature"
May 19, 2000 - Is the end of literature near now that the
millennium has come upon us? How is literature going to handle
its endings in this new age? And what will the beginning of literature
be like in the 21st century?
These are some of the questions, fears and predictions of
change that are featured in "The End of Literature"
supplement in the new issue of "Confrontation (Winter/Spring
2000)." Five professors/scholars from the English Department
of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University explore the
terrain of change and space in the 21st century and probe the
shapes and forms of literature during the past 2,000 years as
well as some of their periodic revampings. The five writers,
Margaret Hallissy, James Bednarz, Dennis Pahl, Jonna Semeiks,
and Martin Tucker are widely published critics of English literature.
In addition, the 336-page issue features 21 stories and 30
poems by a host of distinguished writers. Among them are the
MacArthur Fellowship poet Irving Feldman, the story writer Sarah
Willis (whose first novel published by Alfred A. Knopf has earned
high praise), the distinguished Jewish-American writer Irvin
Faust, the best-selling fiction writer and biographer Thomas
Fleming, and the New Yorker contributor Nora Johnson.
The new issue also features a memoir by Steve Salerno, chairman
of the Journalism Department at Indiana University, Bloomington,
describing a visit to his son in prison. The barriers of generation
and the mystery of human contact (and lack of it) are explored
in a lyrically painful rendering.
Rounding out this handsome Spring 2000 issue are a critical
essay by Sandy McIntosh on the Hamptons literary scene three
decades ago (David Ignatow and Armand Schwerner were first attracting
attention); reviews by Michael Hartnett, Lee Mharte, Susan Greenstein,
Thomas Fink, Jonna Semeiks, and Martin Tucker, and a spectacular
color cover by the artist Molly Mason.
Confrontation, published semi-annually since 1968 and edited
by Martin Tucker, has won many national literary awards. It
has published six Nobel laureates (I.B. Singer, Joseph Brodsky,
Nadine Grodimer, S.Y. Agnon, Derek Walcott, and W.H. Auden),
and many Pulitzer and other prize-winning writers. Among them
are Arthur Miller, Cynthia Ozick, Robert Graves, Jerry Kosinski,
Joyce Carol Oates, James Jones, Iris Murdoch, Bayard Rustin,
Ed Bullins, Hortense Calisher, and Denise Levertov.
Confrontation may be purchased direct from the English Department,
C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, 720 Northern Boulevard,
Brookville, N.Y. 11548-1300, or from local bookstores. For information
about Confrontation magazine, please contact (516) 299-2720;
Fax: (516) 299-2735 or email mtucker@liu.edu. The magazine is
distributed nationally by B. DeBoer (of Nutley, N.J.) and Ubiquity
(of Brooklyn, N.Y.). It can also be found on Amazon.com.
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