XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics celebrates its twentieth issue with the publication of a 180+ page anthology of contemporary writers addressing the theme upon which the journal was founded more than a decade ago. Below are just a few of the essays that appear in this anniversary issue:
Kazim Ali, “The Poetics of Islam”
Amiri Baraka, “Black Power in Newark”
Jeff Derksen, “The Idea of Cross-Culture”
Bhanu Kapil, “Notes of Failure: A Short Essay on Cross-Cultural Poetics”
Barbara Jane Reyes, “On Feminism, Women of Color, Poetics, and Reticence”
Rodrigo Toscano, “To Become Super-Solid”
Tyrone Williams, “Problems and Promises of Actually Existing Cross Cultural Poetics”
Rachel Zolf, “A Tenuous We: Writing as Not-Knowing”
Others writers in this special issue include Maria Damon, Patrick Durgin, Larissa Lai, Juliana Spahr, Celina Su, Edwin Torres, Fred Wah, Rita Wong, and many others.
XCP no. 20 is available as part of a four-issue subscription ($30, checks payable to “College of St. Catherine” and mailed to Mark Nowak, ed., XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics, c/o College of St. Catherine, 601 25th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN. 55454; subscribers outside the U.S. please add $5). For questions, email the editor at manowak_at_
XCP no. 21/22 will be a special double issue (“South Africa: Literature and Social Movements”) that will include new writings from Dennis Brutus, Zine Magubane, Kelwyn Sole, Botsotso Jesters, Priya Narismulu, and many others.
As Juan Felipe Herrera wrote about XCP in the Poetry Project Newsletter a decade ago: “Welcome to a Writer’s Manual on how to detonate the master axis of Big Brother narratives.”