Best of the Sucks
Here it is! The highest-octane poetics from the legendary Toad Suck Review, that innovative lit journal which left its quirky, edgy, visionary mark on the International Avant-Garde then went bust like all grand plans dashed to dust! Come on in and have a drink with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, CD Wright, Anne Waldman, Amiri Baraka and Gary Snyder while Lew Welch, Jack Hirschman, Ken Waldman and Brenda Mann Hammack grill veggie burgers and sizzling brats. Talk smack with Ed Sanders, Gerald Locklin, Diane di Prima, Matthew Henriksen and Jericho Brown as Norman Shapiro, Gillian Conoley, Daryl Spurlock, Scotty Lewis and Vincent Cellucci argue about crossing the line in translation! Rant with Antler, Frank Stanford, klipschutz, Lyn Lifshin and the Dirty Poet while Chris Shipman, Heather Cox, Joey Trimble, Ha Kiet Chau and Tims Snediker and Dardis dance the Macarena! Jack Collom, Mike Topp, Marck Beggs, Tyrone Jaeger, Craig Paulenich, Davis Schneiderman, Debangana Banerjee and Sandy Longhorn are combusting with spontaneous Multiverse Verse, and Rimbaud, Michaux, Prévert, Mlle. Akakia-Viala, Nicolas Bataille and the Piqueray bros are cursing the Meatwheel à la française. Meanwhile, Michael Anania, Robert Archambeau and Lea Graham are popping bottles of champagne, and Elva Maxine Beach, JJ Cromer, Stacy Kidd, Laurie Welch, James McWilliams and Poetry Class are shooting Poetry Rockets into the sky that explode into free-verse showers of shimmering lines! Why? Because the new MadHat poetry series Toad Suck Éditions is in the house, to reestablish its Historical Canon before moving on to a brand-new era of Ever-Evolving Toad Fire!!!
“The Toad Suck Review achieved international acclaim in 2012 when Library Journal named it one of the 10 best literary journals in the world. During the Toad’s six-year run, it was recognized for publishing cutting-edge poetry, fiction, nonfiction, literary translations, environmental literature, Arkansas-based authors, scholarship and artwork and reviews.”
—Arkansas Democrat Gazette
“It leans toward the experimental without veering into excessively weird. Unique enough to distinguish itself from the crowd of literary journals while still being accessible, TSR is a solid choice for collections of contemporary literature.” —Library Journal
“There is also something loveable about … Toad Suck Review.… It is utterly unpretentious.… confusingly, loveably, unabashedly different … if you are currently living in a broken-down van and writing a screenplay about people discussing philosophy on a raft, then this is the review for you. If not, well, frankly, my dear, Toad Suck doesn’t give a damn.”
—The Review Review
Best of the Sucks:
High-Octane Poetix from
the Legendary Toad Suck Review
edited by Mark Spitzer
Toad Suck Éditions
$21.95, paperback, 228 pp
ISBN-13: 978-1-952335-38-9
