Not as in an insult, but rather the unusually (unfortunately?) named lit mag of the University of Tulsa.

From my point of view, it’s a good bit of work. Heavy on the poetry, which is always my priority (to the extent that I tend to read not to read lit mags that have anything but poetry, excepting those focused on sci fi, Asimov’s or Analog).

Overall, it’s good, rather great. Some well known poets published in this issue (Grace Cavalieri, for example), but the overall sense is of safety in the editors’ choices. Not a place one would go to see who is pushing the envelope nor what the coming trends will be.

I did actually read some of the fiction and read into it a certain aesthetic. Oklahoma is, geographically, a big place, but not densely populated and still with a lot of farm land. There was a recurring theme of isolation in the fiction that I related to Oklahoma’s flat and lonely geography. But maybe that’s just me or even if it wasn’t, maybe it was just a one off. Nonetheless… and the issue’s theme was ‘the view from here.’ From where? Just saying – a theme like that could make editors unconsciously think of their state’s many mostly empty spaces.