Happiness is a Warm Simon Gray

JOHNNY AMERICA #8 by Various

'Johnny America' is  a pretty fancy literary zeen from the U.S. It has the professional layout that you may expect from 'The Lifted Brow' or a 'McSweeneys', but it doesn't have that thick spine that positions those in the book/journal classification. No, this is a thin, thread-bound collection of short prose writing, with some kind of lino/screen printed looking cover on blue card. Probably what works for this zeen is very specific submission guidelines, they prefer writing between 200 & 2000 words, not over 3000 unless you're amazing & certainly not over 4500 words no matter how good you are. Based on this premise for content, they've managed 8 issues & allegedly have a slush pile. I didn't find this issue's content particularly memorable, I was tired when I read it, but perhaps managed to stay awake during this reading as I wasn't facing an article that could ever feel too long in that situation. & If they stick to these submission guidelines, I won't mind attempting another issue knowing this is what I can expect. This one did feel like reading a 'Lifted Brow' or a 'fiction' issue of an international magazine, material removed from my own Australian-flavoured literary world. Other U.S. zeens I can recall reading were usually perzines & spoke to me with a mode of address I was more familiar with. I did enjoy the introductory piece & the min-zeen sewn into the middle that featured reviews of scratch-lotto games & a refurbished New York bar. This is probably best read when you're feeling sedate yet pompous, don't get all gooey about how charmingly articulate the whole shebang is, be cool, write a so-so review. B&W guts, portrait format. johnnyamerica.net or PO Box 44-2001, Lawrence, KS 66044, USA.