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Harpur Palate Rules Are Made to be Broken Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson I mentioned in my "Back to Literature" column at MyShelf.com recently that I have been receiving unsolicited books in my mailbox. I may soon be inundated. I, therefore, make it a policy never to review any of them. I should bite my tongue. Never say never. Today I received two back copies of a review journal called Harpur Palate. Odd name, no? It caught my attention so I opened first one and then the other, musing all the while that perhaps this was part of the universal plan. I opened the back page-I'm dyslexic so I often do that-and noticed that this journal sponsors the John Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction. That really got my interest because one of John Gardner's books was the first book on writing I ever read or was required to read. I think the year was 1965. I learned more about the short story form from him than I had in all the writing and literature classes I had ever taken. That got me started. I loved the whole book, even Editor Toiya Kristin Finley's introduction in which she wonders if anyone ever reads what editors have to say. Then I began to consider the poem that won a poetry prize for that issue. It was called "Blue Man Group & the Shiftiness of Wu Wei," by Ryan G. Van Cleave. Then I read Knute Skinner's "A Suitable Guest." These two poems made me consider how hard it must be to judge contests and choose submissions, not only because they were both so different but because I was bout to embark on a job of that sort for a new print journal. As it turned out, I read one entire journal from beginning to end in one evening. Who woulda' thunk? That's when I decided to break my own rule and review these journals, more as a series than as a single issue. If I was so fascinated by a relatively obscure journal (think Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Tin House, etc. when you think literary), maybe my readers would be, too. Writers need to know more about the journals they submit to. Besides, there is lots of solid entertainment in these reviews. There is information on prizes. Stories and poems to learn from. Emerging authors to get to know. Learn more or order a copy at: http://harpurpalate.binghamton.edu/ 
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