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TWIST Vol. 3, #1: "regrets"
($3.00 from PO Box 441 / Ames, IA / 50010 USA.
E-mail)
Review by
Christine Douville
This short litzine is more chapbook-like than zine-like: there is a total of four totally blank pages, and there's a page with only one haïku printed on it… not something you will see often in zine world, as most zinesters usually avoid wasting paper. But then again,
twist is slightly more professional than the average zine (no mistakes, at least none that I spotted at the first reading; perfect layout; nothing too cute or corny); if it weren't so anonymous, I would have been tempted to say it was issued by a small press rather than by a zinester.
Who are the creators of this zine? And, most importantly, who are the contributors? The editors mention that all published submissions will be anonymous unless specified otherwise, but I would have appreciated a few words about the writers and artists who shared their regrets with us… or a short paragraph to explain this "anonymous" policy… or a longer intro, to explain the theme better and link the submissions together.
twist publishes personal prose essays, artwork and "very little" poetry. My favorite pieces were "after", by… Anonymous, and the photos by Richard H. Fox and R. Harvey. Overall, nice work, nice layout – I'm intrigued. The fact that I preferred the visual part over the writing in this issue is probably related to the theme; this "regrets" issue felt a bit sober to me. Maybe I'm too accustomed to regrets… I'll make sure to check out their upcoming issues – the next themes are "luck" (deadline: May 15, '04), "fear" (deadline: August 15, '04), and "magic" (deadline: November 15, '04)!
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