The Winter edition of The Puritan – out now!

Ottawa has a new quarterly literary journal devoted to prose fiction. The Puritan is the product of the labour of three Ottawa University undergraduate students, Omid Amidi, Spencer Gordon and Tyler Willis, and features the prose of a sampling of regional authors.

The writers run the gamut from student to published author, and to their credit the editors have managed the mix very well. The magazine is a very readable and engaging spread.

Occasionally amateur writing is overwrought, gilded, flowered and perfumed with words. Or stories are murdered by commas, their tiny savage spikes riving sentences mercilessly. But even an elitist prick like me can admit that a story can be badly written and yet still be enjoyable. We enthuse in amateur art precisely because it is unfixed in this way, seeking the occasional gem within these loose, scaffold structures of words. This is probably the best student-run journal I’ve ever seen. I think it should be taken up and read. It should definitely be continued.

But watch out for the editorial comments. In fact, maybe skip them. “All art is useless” is Wilde’s famous dictum, and one of the easiest ways to produce bad writing is to chain it completely to intention. The long and sometimes off-putting editorial comments included with The Puritan definitely have intention. On an initial read, they bang out like a hand grenade packed with pretension. I’m still puzzling over “literature is the language of meaning.” Does this mean that everyday speech is gibberish?

(Humorous note to Mr. Willis: My spies say you should go to class more often. And not interrupt your teachers so much.)

The youthful love for literature that obviously drives these men also drives them into writing their comments “for history.” I should know! I did exactly the same in my undergrad years. And while they said some things about the Ottawa literary scene that I could agree with (from the outside, local poetry is slightly more visible than prose, due to some heroic efforts by publishers), they also say some things that are incorrect (there are some prose journals in Ottawa: Front and Centre has been running for eight years, and check out the Small Press Book Fair).

But I eagerly await their spring issue. And so should all of Ottawa. Every single step towards more literature is positive. The Puritan, and her creators, should be lauded and supported. For locations where The Puritan can be found throughout Ottawa, check out their website at www.puritan-magazine.com. You can also submit your own material to the mag by visiting puritanmagazine@gmail.com.

As appeared in the Ottawa XPress – March 01, 2007
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=11515