Vol. I No. I  
September 1999
 
The Danforth Review
 
FICTION, POETRY REVIEWS AND OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF

FICTION

POETRY

REVIEWS

LINKS

SUBMISSIONS

ARCHIVES

 

 

Welcome to our 1st issue!

Technology has been changing the relationship between writer and reader for centuries. From the first papyrus pages to moveable type to the photocopier and desktop publishing, the movement has been towards assisting communication – easing both the means of production and the means of distribution. In recent years, the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web, has ignited a new communications revolution – complete with bi-polar visions of utopia and apocalypse.

To be sure the Internet is not the harbinger of a perfect human society. Neither, however, does it signal the end of all things bright and beautiful. To writers it offers almost unlimited distribution. To readers it offers a library of near infinite proportions. These are good things, surely, and yet there remains anxiety in the literary community about the definition of words like "book" or "magazine." Can the definition of these objects extend to words delivered digitally?

At The Danforth Review we say, "YES!" The reading experience has never been static, and more big changes appear just around the corner as publishers prepare for the arrival of the digital book. (Click here to read CBC Infoculture's article on the issue.) At The Danforth Review we believe there remains room amidst all these changes for literary experiment, room for stories about the human heart, as Faulkner said, "in conflict with itself."

The Danforth Review will try to nurture writers who are experimenting with new possibilities at the same time as they are responding to old truths. We are looking for the right words in the right order. No more. No less.

 

THE DANFORTH REVIEW IS EDITED BY MICHAEL BRYSON.