Matrix Magazine Review

Today I have a presentation for my Advanced Poetry class on Matrix Magazine, and since I have no stories or poems to give you, I figured I'll tell you my opinion on the magazine.

First off, you should know that they print 'different' and 'quirky' works, which can include poetry, short stories, drawings, photographs, or even reviews. Anything that can be put into print, they will print. However, to get your piece into the magazine, you need to either have been published before, or catch the attention of one of the editors, since publication is all by invitation. I'm not really sure if I like this, a it really limits the submitted work. I know there are plenty of very talented poets and writers out there that remain obscured. They may be published, but there is a very slim chance that Matrix would ever find them. However, it would also limit the submissions that the editors have to go through, not to mention I'm sure they are meticulous about who they do invite.

No matter how one gets published, the work that's printed is amazing. I was reading it last night, and unfortunately my brain was not functioning at 100%, and I was fairly tired, so I only got half way through. I can say that I was especially impressed with John K. Samson's work. Many of his poems published in this magazine are strictly structured, something that I find difficult to do, and I know many people in my poetry class struggle with. An although I have not gotten to this part in the magazine, while flipping through I found an amusing section called "What Rappers Are Saying" by Jonathan Ball. As the title suggests, it's about songs preformed by rappers and what they are saying. I'm not particularly fond of rap music, but this looks interesting, so I'll skim it later.

Now the art work in my edition (edition 94) is both beautiful and kind of disturbing. The cover is amazing. It feel like it's supposed to be an optical illusion, but everything looks normal... The details are very impressive, down to the minute figures standing in the windows. On the inside, however, there are little illustrations that kind of remind me of Tim Burton. They're so jumbled up you can stare at them all day and still not be too sure what they're supposed to be. From the looks of them, they're all drawn using one line, without lifting the pen off the paper, except for the occasional small detail. Unfortunately I cannot find any of the drawings on the internet, and I don't want to take a picture, so you'll just have to take my work for it that they're impressive. I will, however, post a picture of the cover art.

Sorry for how blurry it is. If you look up Matrix Magazine on Google Images, a bunch of half nude women come up, and I didn't want to sift through them to find a better quality picture...