The Editor's Review of Botticelli Magazine Issue 7

My wife, daughter, and I spent most of last week visiting my son, Jason, in Ohio.  He is finishing up his BFA program at the Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) and last week was his art gallery thesis show.  (Editor’s/Proud Father’s Note:  view some samples of Jason’s work here:  www.JasonArtGo.com).  While waiting for him to come downstairs from his dorm room, I visited the CCAD school store.  There I found a copy of Botticelli Magazine, Issue 7 on sale for six dollars.  The magazine is also available online in an expanded and, frankly, higher quality format at BotticelliMag.com. 

Botticelli Magazine is produced and edited by CCAD students.  The hardcopy version I purchased is presented in full color, on high quality paper folded and stapled through the spine.  It contains sixty-one pages of poetry and illustrations; the expanded online version contains eighty-eight pages and more poems and pictures.

The number of speculative poems presented surprised me.  I particularly enjoyed Anna Leahy’s “Worlds of Rock and Iron”, a delightful combination of homophones, astronomy, and geometry.  I also enjoyed her “Visible Universe”, which explores the subtle differences between perception and reality.

The issue is a bit heavy on prose poems, of which I am not usually much of a fan, but I did enjoy Katherine Wright’s “How-To Poem for Absorbing the Shockwave”, another speculative piece.  I was reminded a bit of Douglas Adams’ work there.

The general quality of the poetry in the issue is comparable to that found in Poetry Magazine and in the best issues of Star*Line.  When one considers that it is produced and edited by busy college students in what little spare time they have, the quality of the magazine is nothing short of astounding.  I recommend the online version over the print version, as online more poems are presented, the illustrations are of noticeably better quality (more vibrant colors, no staples or paper folds in the way), and viewing is free.  However, for those of you such as I who enjoy the feng shui of holding and reading a book, the print version is a bargain at the price.

Steven Wittenberg Gordon

Editor