41:4 Autumn 1995

DEVIN JOHNSTON

Review: apex of the M, #1-3

Rathmann and Johnston continued Nicholls’s practice of publishing a solid section of reviews in every issue. Here is Johnston’s review of the first three issues of apex of the M, a magazine edited by Kristin Prevallet, Alan Gilbert, Pam Rehm, and Lew Daly who were living in Buffalo, NY at the time and reacting to the nascent orthodoxies emerging around L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.

Reflecting recently on CR and its history, Johnston wrote:

Chicago Review is a rarity among American journals in terms of its editorial structure: a graduate publication with institutional support but no faculty oversight. For better or worse, the editorship turns over every half-decade or so. As a result, its history includes pockets of incoherence, but also bursts of real excitement. Its best years combine the university's intellectual earnestness with an irrepressible enthusiasm (from being young). Significantly, it's also a publication of Chicago as well as University of Chicago, a bridge between the university and the city's creative communities.

Johnston teaches at Saint Louis University. He's published two books of poetry (Telepathy and Aversions) and one of criticism (Telepathy), and co-edits Flood Editions.

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