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Stardust and Fate: The Blueroad Reader
Stardust and Fate: The Blueroad Reader is the first volume in a collected series of new writing and art from the road, featuring the works of nearly four dozen writers, poets, and printmakers from North America. The stories, essays, and poems in Stardust and Fate tour some of many routes-seen and otherwise-running through people's lives, in real and imaginary journeys, literal and figurative, past and present. Pieces include fiction, journalism, verse, and memoir: offbeat, quirky, surprising, deep. Handsomely printed and illustrated with original wood engravings, the collection explores some of the intersections and side roads of landscape, history, people, places, curiosity, wanderlust, memory, moment, chance, and change. Contributors include Freya Manfred, Robert Bly, John Calvin Rezmerski, Bill Holm, Joyce Sutphen, Joe Paddock, Terry Davis, Philip Bryant, Carol Barrett, Richard Robbins, Nancy Paddock, Roger Sheffer, Thomas R. Smith, Suzanne L. Bunkers, Nick Healy, and many others.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 18, 2008
From Foreword Magazine:
It’s the third day of autumn, and the windows are open, the fountain splashing. My children have been back in school for several weeks now, the refrigerator clicks on and off, the cats snooze… But rather than catching up, cleaning up, and throwing out — those chores of post-summer vacation — I long for the wild blue yonder.
Used to be, in the times between and just after college, that we’d throw a few things in a paper bag and take off for an island in Superior, a martini in Louisiana, the horizon of Grand Tetons or San Francisco. Those were the pre-cassette days (or at least our cars didn’t have the equipment), so we listened to the radio, or we listened to the wind. Funny, I don’t remember great conversations from those trips. I recall tension, joy, the comfort of the glowing dials — but no breakthroughs in dialectic.
That’s the beauty of the journey, I suppose. Wool gathering may be a euphemism for aimless talk, but it has nothing to do with a train’s careful winding towards a destination, or the highway’s long exhalation of farewell.
A few years ago, John Gaterud and his family got in their car to drive five hours towards an actual product of this anti-wool gathering, this sensation of anticipation and release. They were going to see Jack Kerouac’s manuscript of On the Road. All 120 feet of it.
Gaterud writes, “So there in the low dark cool of the museum, unfurled and glowing beneath steelframed glass, lies On the Road in all its battered typescript glory; a story now fifty years long…”
That long road of a manuscript got Gaterud thinking, and this summer he released a 256-page compendium of the open road of new writing called The Blueroad Reader.
The large page and spare, handsome design are a relief for the eye, and the stories, poems, and essays divers, accomplished, often breathtaking. Independent press editors, take note: the fiction talent here is outstanding.
Gaterud says that this Blueroad Reader is only the first of many, for “…line by line, mile after mile, Jack is still talking after all these years. That’s why we’re publishing this book,… [hoping:] to conjure visions for others to read and consider, reflections from passing roads while listening for that horn to blow.”
And we’ll be the figure in the rearview mirror, waving.
From the Star Tribune:
Inspired by the ghost of Jack Kerouac, the father-daughter team from Janesville, Minn., captures the spirit of the modern pilgrim in this anthology of new essays, poems and stories -- the first of what the Gateruds hope will be many Blueroad Readers. Many Minnesota favorites are among the book's 38 contributors, including Bill Holm, John Rezmerski, Phil Bryant, Freya Manfred and Joyce Sutphen. They bring us the news from New Orleans, Iceland, Mexico, England; from nursing homes, cemeteries and cornfields; from inside their imaginations -- wherever the road has taken them. All are enhanced by handsome etchings and woodblock illustrations and graced with a striking cover photo, "Ice on Judd Creek," by Jim Brandenburg. A perfect companion for both the restless and the road-weary.
-Sarah T. Williams, August 19, 2007
From the Minneapolis/St.Paul City Pages:
With its recent publication of "The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate," Blueroad Press is the newest kid on the vibrant Minnesota small press block. The fiction and literary nonfiction stories and poems that comprise the collection, the first volume of what Blueroad hopes will be an annual publication, rambles across the upper Midwest, the United States and parts farther flung. Like any good road trip, the volume, edited by John Gaterud, has its ups and downs, but it doesn't take much digging to find gems. In Ed McManis's series of poems, "Postcards to Mike," a chaperone on a student trip to Europe sends postcards to an invisible friend, "Europe is still/the puzzle piece floating between Columbus/and the Beatles. They brag about Italian wine/imagine French prostitutes they'll coax, the strength/of the American dollar." In Mark Dewey's "Franklin Finds Out," a father laments the loss of the weekly road trips with his daughter for her piano lessons. The narrator in Rachael Hanel's "The First Glimpse" meditates on the deaths of members of her family. The book (which is unfortunately a little too unwieldy to be brought along when readers hit the road) is illustrated with subtle black and white engravings. With this inaugural publication, Blueroad Press needn't worry about getting beat up by the bigger kids on the small press block.
-Rhena Tantisunthorn, August 15, 2007
From the Minneapolis Observer Quarterly:
When our kids were little, we had various story collections we kept handy for bedtime reading. But as an adult, I find I still enjoy a good story at bedtime, and 'Stardust and Fate' beautifully fills that desire. Its beauty isn't just in the eclectic combination of stories, essays, and poems relating to roads and travel, but its lovely wood engravings, it spare elegant design, even the comfortable horizontal orientation make it a pleasure to hold on your lap. Contributing writers include Robert Bly, Bill Holm, Freya Manfred, Joyce Sutphen, Pop Wagner, and many more local luminaries; all excellent, lucid writers. The entries range in length and depth, from Terry Davis's mesmerizing 22-page story about his parents to lighthearted short poems, so that you can find something to suit your state of mind on any given evening. Not that you have to read them at night, but the book is so well-suited as a bedtime reader for grownups. [John:] Gaterud has done a marvelous job of assembling this first anthology from his Janesville, Minnesota, press. We hope to see many more Blueroad Readers.
-Sharon Parker, Winter 2007
It’s the third day of autumn, and the windows are open, the fountain splashing. My children have been back in school for several weeks now, the refrigerator clicks on and off, the cats snooze… But rather than catching up, cleaning up, and throwing out — those chores of post-summer vacation — I long for the wild blue yonder.
Used to be, in the times between and just after college, that we’d throw a few things in a paper bag and take off for an island in Superior, a martini in Louisiana, the horizon of Grand Tetons or San Francisco. Those were the pre-cassette days (or at least our cars didn’t have the equipment), so we listened to the radio, or we listened to the wind. Funny, I don’t remember great conversations from those trips. I recall tension, joy, the comfort of the glowing dials — but no breakthroughs in dialectic.
That’s the beauty of the journey, I suppose. Wool gathering may be a euphemism for aimless talk, but it has nothing to do with a train’s careful winding towards a destination, or the highway’s long exhalation of farewell.
A few years ago, John Gaterud and his family got in their car to drive five hours towards an actual product of this anti-wool gathering, this sensation of anticipation and release. They were going to see Jack Kerouac’s manuscript of On the Road. All 120 feet of it.
Gaterud writes, “So there in the low dark cool of the museum, unfurled and glowing beneath steelframed glass, lies On the Road in all its battered typescript glory; a story now fifty years long…”
That long road of a manuscript got Gaterud thinking, and this summer he released a 256-page compendium of the open road of new writing called The Blueroad Reader.
The large page and spare, handsome design are a relief for the eye, and the stories, poems, and essays divers, accomplished, often breathtaking. Independent press editors, take note: the fiction talent here is outstanding.
Gaterud says that this Blueroad Reader is only the first of many, for “…line by line, mile after mile, Jack is still talking after all these years. That’s why we’re publishing this book,… [hoping:] to conjure visions for others to read and consider, reflections from passing roads while listening for that horn to blow.”
And we’ll be the figure in the rearview mirror, waving.
From the Star Tribune:
Inspired by the ghost of Jack Kerouac, the father-daughter team from Janesville, Minn., captures the spirit of the modern pilgrim in this anthology of new essays, poems and stories -- the first of what the Gateruds hope will be many Blueroad Readers. Many Minnesota favorites are among the book's 38 contributors, including Bill Holm, John Rezmerski, Phil Bryant, Freya Manfred and Joyce Sutphen. They bring us the news from New Orleans, Iceland, Mexico, England; from nursing homes, cemeteries and cornfields; from inside their imaginations -- wherever the road has taken them. All are enhanced by handsome etchings and woodblock illustrations and graced with a striking cover photo, "Ice on Judd Creek," by Jim Brandenburg. A perfect companion for both the restless and the road-weary.
-Sarah T. Williams, August 19, 2007
From the Minneapolis/St.Paul City Pages:
With its recent publication of "The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate," Blueroad Press is the newest kid on the vibrant Minnesota small press block. The fiction and literary nonfiction stories and poems that comprise the collection, the first volume of what Blueroad hopes will be an annual publication, rambles across the upper Midwest, the United States and parts farther flung. Like any good road trip, the volume, edited by John Gaterud, has its ups and downs, but it doesn't take much digging to find gems. In Ed McManis's series of poems, "Postcards to Mike," a chaperone on a student trip to Europe sends postcards to an invisible friend, "Europe is still/the puzzle piece floating between Columbus/and the Beatles. They brag about Italian wine/imagine French prostitutes they'll coax, the strength/of the American dollar." In Mark Dewey's "Franklin Finds Out," a father laments the loss of the weekly road trips with his daughter for her piano lessons. The narrator in Rachael Hanel's "The First Glimpse" meditates on the deaths of members of her family. The book (which is unfortunately a little too unwieldy to be brought along when readers hit the road) is illustrated with subtle black and white engravings. With this inaugural publication, Blueroad Press needn't worry about getting beat up by the bigger kids on the small press block.
-Rhena Tantisunthorn, August 15, 2007
From the Minneapolis Observer Quarterly:
When our kids were little, we had various story collections we kept handy for bedtime reading. But as an adult, I find I still enjoy a good story at bedtime, and 'Stardust and Fate' beautifully fills that desire. Its beauty isn't just in the eclectic combination of stories, essays, and poems relating to roads and travel, but its lovely wood engravings, it spare elegant design, even the comfortable horizontal orientation make it a pleasure to hold on your lap. Contributing writers include Robert Bly, Bill Holm, Freya Manfred, Joyce Sutphen, Pop Wagner, and many more local luminaries; all excellent, lucid writers. The entries range in length and depth, from Terry Davis's mesmerizing 22-page story about his parents to lighthearted short poems, so that you can find something to suit your state of mind on any given evening. Not that you have to read them at night, but the book is so well-suited as a bedtime reader for grownups. [John:] Gaterud has done a marvelous job of assembling this first anthology from his Janesville, Minnesota, press. We hope to see many more Blueroad Readers.
-Sharon Parker, Winter 2007
November 29, 2015
Yes, this is yet another literary magazine; I picked up a bunch inexpensively at the book fair. This one seems to take its title from Jack Kerouac’s writing; this first issue was published in 2007.
The index is unusual for this kind of magazine. Rather than a linear index, or arranged by subject or type of literature, it’s by author. It also doesn’t distinguish between fiction and non-fiction–while some pieces sound more fictional than others, you will need to make up your own mind.
Insert my usual comments about modern poetry here. The most interesting ones for me are “Postcards to Mike” by Ed McManis, a set of verses describing a school trip to Europe, the small disasters and odd moments of traveling with students.
A couple of the pieces are very much written in 2006, and feel dated now with their jabs at the Bush administration. Deserved jabs, but still. “Letter from Iceland” by Bill Holm and “Letter from London” by Donna R. Casella are both most interesting as time capsules, I think.
Best of the prose pieces from my point of view was “O Mary, Where Art Thou?” by Suzanne Lillian Bunkers. It’s an examination of the various appearances of Mary, mother of Jesus, with an emphasis on the sites that the author has personally visited. One of the qualifications for authenticating a visit by Mary, it turns out, is conformity with Catholic doctrine. If your vision of Mary has her advocating ordination of women, you’re out of luck officially.
Overall, the theme is of road trips and journeys. Many of the pieces are sad or bittersweet; others are nostalgic. I do not know if any further volumes were published by Blueroad Press.
As with other literary magazines I’ve reviewed, it seems decent if this kind of literature is your thing.
The index is unusual for this kind of magazine. Rather than a linear index, or arranged by subject or type of literature, it’s by author. It also doesn’t distinguish between fiction and non-fiction–while some pieces sound more fictional than others, you will need to make up your own mind.
Insert my usual comments about modern poetry here. The most interesting ones for me are “Postcards to Mike” by Ed McManis, a set of verses describing a school trip to Europe, the small disasters and odd moments of traveling with students.
A couple of the pieces are very much written in 2006, and feel dated now with their jabs at the Bush administration. Deserved jabs, but still. “Letter from Iceland” by Bill Holm and “Letter from London” by Donna R. Casella are both most interesting as time capsules, I think.
Best of the prose pieces from my point of view was “O Mary, Where Art Thou?” by Suzanne Lillian Bunkers. It’s an examination of the various appearances of Mary, mother of Jesus, with an emphasis on the sites that the author has personally visited. One of the qualifications for authenticating a visit by Mary, it turns out, is conformity with Catholic doctrine. If your vision of Mary has her advocating ordination of women, you’re out of luck officially.
Overall, the theme is of road trips and journeys. Many of the pieces are sad or bittersweet; others are nostalgic. I do not know if any further volumes were published by Blueroad Press.
As with other literary magazines I’ve reviewed, it seems decent if this kind of literature is your thing.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews