Introductory Remarks from Laurie Lambeth, DSQ's New Book/Film Review Editor
When Steve Kuusisto asked me if I would like to be book review editor, my initial reaction was thrill and joy. Then humility set in: "Who, me? Really? Are you sure?" I hope that these two reactions continue to inform my work at DSQ with each coming issue. I am very pleased to be — virtually — here, in cyberspace. And I am honored to be part of the journal.
I look forward to future reviews that investigate the ways writers, scholars and filmmakers perceive and re-shape disability. I hope to examine debates while also considering the aesthetic qualities of the work. And I look forward to reviews that come from different disciplinary backgrounds than my own in literature and film.
In future issues I would like to include reviews of audio books (which offer an additional dimension of performance than the writing itself) and a "bookshelf" column that will resurrect books that may have been overlooked in the past.
Included in this issue is a poem of mine about multiple sclerosis and Frankenstein's monster, "Case History: Frankenstein's Lesions." I was struck by the ways images from popular culture impose themselves on our ideas of physical — felt — experience. For me, the trigger moment occurred when, during a flare-up, I felt as though I walked like Frankenstein's monster, tipping, heavy-footed, off balanceand then realized that the image I imposed upon myself was one built from external observation: I was "feeling" what I had seen enacted on screen, and so I then set out to imagine cinematic representation through sensation.
This poem was a lot of fun to write, partly because I got to use lines from Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and James Whale's 1931 classic, but particularly because the monster could say and do more than I could possibly allow myself in my own voice.
I would like to thank Steve Kuusisto, Brenda Breuggemann, and Scot Danforth for their very warm welcome, and to Kami Darling for her assistance getting me acclimated. I am eager to read reviews from those of you who are compelled to write them (please do!), and I hope to find us some interesting work.
Contributor Guidelines
Book, film or DVD reviews concentrating on disability, illness, or the body may be directed to the book review editor, Laurie Clements Lambeth, at <lrclambeth@sbcglobal.net>. We are interested in reviews of both creative literature — fiction, poetry, memoir, graphic novels/memoirs — and texts relating to any of the branches of Disability Studies. With regard to film, we are interested especially in fresh representations of disabilities, or at least in fresh readings of the films. Please query before submitting a review. Ideally, reviews should be discerning and conscious of Disability Studies concerns.
Laurie Lambeth
Laurie Lambeth's bio
Laurie Clements Lambeth's first volume of poetry, Veil and Burn, was selected in 2006 by Maxine Kumin for the National Poetry Series Open Competition, and will be published by the University of Illinois Press. Her poems and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Paris Review, The Iowa Review, Mid-American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. A PhD and MFA graduate of the University of Houston's creative writing program, she currently conducts writing workshops at a literary non-profit and for employees at one of Houston's largest hospitals.
