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the writers block literary magazine
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Immediate impact is the founding principle of The Writers Block. Writing published here will be complex, but not so complex that readers won't experience a sense of coherent, powerful meaning on their first read-through. Literary and formal innovations are important to the development of art, but when these innovations get in the way of the basic transmission of meaning between text and reader they must be abandoned.
T.S. Eliot once said that “Poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult.” Eliot's “present” was the early 20th century; ours is the early 21st century, and in the light of facebook, twitter, and smart phones, where things are either instantaneous or obsolete, poets have no room to fiddle around with being difficult for difficulty's sake.
In order to adapt to a generation and mass culture that seems increasingly apathetic and even hostile to contemplative activity, poets have to adapt and fashion their craft with an eye to immediacy. Work that successfully balances immediacy with aesthetic innovation and excellence will be published in the creative forum that is The Writers Block.
The Writers Block is edited by Ben Gehrels. He has been published in magazines such as All Rights Reserved, ditch, and The Antigonish Review and is an MA candidate in the English department at Simon Fraser University.
home
submit
issues
links
blog
Immediate impact is the founding principle of The Writers Block. Writing published here will be complex, but not so complex that readers won't experience a sense of coherent, powerful meaning on their first read-through. Literary and formal innovations are important to the development of art, but when these innovations get in the way of the basic transmission of meaning between text and reader they must be abandoned.
T.S. Eliot once said that “Poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult.” Eliot's “present” was the early 20th century; ours is the early 21st century, and in the light of facebook, twitter, and smart phones, where things are either instantaneous or obsolete, poets have no room to fiddle around with being difficult for difficulty's sake.
In order to adapt to a generation and mass culture that seems increasingly apathetic and even hostile to contemplative activity, poets have to adapt and fashion their craft with an eye to immediacy. Work that successfully balances immediacy with aesthetic innovation and excellence will be published in the creative forum that is The Writers Block.
The Writers Block is edited by Ben Gehrels. He has been published in magazines such as All Rights Reserved, ditch, and The Antigonish Review and is an MA candidate in the English department at Simon Fraser University.