Volume 1, Number 1 (2001)

About This Issue

This inaugural issue of Harpur Palate features the first winner of the John Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction, as well as a message from founding editor Toiya Kristen Finley. In the message, Finley writes “It seems that every publication is expected to define itself, to establish some criteria about what it feels about art. . . . we choose not to put limitations on what ‘art’ is or can be. We will wait to be surprised by the submissions we receive.” The issue begins with fabulist fiction by Josh November, “The Whitefish Eating Contest,” in which two families vie for superiority in a strange town festival. Poetry in this issue includes a variety of perspectives, from prose poetry to forms to imagist pieces. Virgil Suárez’ La Cruz de los Caidos, or Self Portrait with Cross uses spacing to draw with the whitespace of the page while the ambiguity of the spaces draws connections between lines. The ecclesiastical theme is continued by the John Gardner Prize winner by David Varcia, “Theft of a Good Man,” in which a barber makes his weekly visit to cut the tonsure of an abbot. This first issue features work from several Binghamton students, as well as writers from outside the Binghamton community.