Temblor, No. 1 (Winter 1985)

The Winter 1985 issue of Temblor brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 28 named pieces or sections, beginning with A Set by Kenneth Irby, Seven Poems by John Clarke, and Three Poems by Gustaf Sobin. That opening offers a direct path through the issue, but it is not the only one. A reader can follow the printed order, pause over a familiar contributor, or start with a title that catches the eye. No special background is needed. The magazine explains itself gradually through the choices it makes and through the company each piece keeps.

The issue begins with A Set by Kenneth Irby, and gives the reader an immediate way into the issue. From there, Seven Poems and Three Poems widen its range of voices and approaches. The issue gains its character from the way those different voices sit beside one another. Long projects are the governing unit: Seven Poems and the other excerpts or poem groups let serial form, accumulation, and return displace the self-contained magazine lyric. Taken together, the issue offers a cross-section of ongoing experimental practices—poetry, prose, translation, and performance sharing space without being reduced to a single school.

The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, 3 poems from The Person by Lyn Hejinian changes the view; the closing stretch reaches The Translation Begins by Jacqueline Risset. The works differ in length, subject, and manner, yet their placement creates connections that a simple list of names cannot show. The pleasure comes from those changes. A short piece can clear the air after a longer one, a new voice can redirect the mood, and an unexpected title can make an earlier page look different when the reader thinks back to it.

The contributor list includes Kenneth Irby, John Clarke, Gustaf Sobin, Anthony Barnett, Charles Stein, Gerald Burns, Clark Coolidge, and Fanny Howe, along with 18 additional contributors. Some readers will arrive looking for a particular name; others will meet these contributors here for the first time. Either approach works. The publication details add useful context: the issue was edited by Leland Hickman, published by Temblor, and issued from North Hollywood, California. A journal is also a made object, assembled by people deciding what to print, how to order it, and which voices should share a number. Reading from beginning to end lets those choices appear naturally.

The catalog subjects—Postwar American poetry, Experimental writing, Poetry in translation, and Little magazines—are useful starting points, especially for searching, but they do not set limits on what a reader may find. For a first visit, begin with A Set by Kenneth Irby, turn next to 3 poems from The Person by Lyn Hejinian, and finish with The Translation Begins by Jacqueline Risset. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 71 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 160 PDF pages. It keeps the contents in a stable, legible form and makes names and titles easier to find. A source facsimile remains part of the project’s private editorial record, but it is not included in the public upload. What appears here is the reading copy: a practical way to spend time with the issue and discover which pieces invite a return.