Zine Review: The Quilliad #4

Litzine, various authors, [email protected], thequilliad.wordpress.com, $5

With 16 different contributors who appear far more literate and well-read than me, I’ll reserve comment on much of the The Quil­liad because this definitely skews on the more cerebral side of creative writing and poetry. This collective collection is four is­sues in and showcases authors who are not afraid to flaunt their styles, offering bite-sized teasers of their handiwork with an implied invitation to google them to find out more. In the same vein, I googled The Quilliad and discovered a great website, Facebook page and Twitter feed, so mad props to editor-in-chief Sarah Varnam for her spirit of collaboration and promotion, shining a light on a community of writers and getting things out in the ether via hard copy. The artwork in The Quilliad is top notch. Hyper-realistic drawings of birds, bugs and what appears to be a corpse are all really well done and complement the words within. This is interesting because there’s no real central narrative since these short stories and poems veer in many di­rections, some in a formalized manner and others in anything but. I’d almost suggest it’s “soooo random” but again, The Quilliad is kind of academic so I’ll park the collo­quialisms elsewhere. (Cam Gordon)