Oberlin's Literary Gem: Field Magazine Still Vital

A Place for Poetry: Field's 31st issue includes a symposium on Rainer Maria Rilke (photo courtesy Oberlin College Press)

In 1968 a student walked into English professor David Young's office and asked him why Oberlin didn't have a literary magazine. At the time, Oberlin's audiences had long been acknowledged as unusually hospitable and receptive. Recalling this, Young said, "There were a lot of poets around, and a lot of readings. I didn't have a good answer."

This led to discussions of the possibility of starting a magazine among Young and several interested faculty and community members. Eventually from these discussions Field was born, a journal of contemporary poetry and poetics that Oberlin has published twice a year ever since.

Next week, in its 31st year, Field will publish its fall number, which includes a symposium on the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The symposia have been some of Field's most distinctive and successful features since they were introduced in 1979.

For the symposia, the editors of Field ‹ professors of creative writing Martha Collins and Pamela Alexander, professor of English David Walker, and Young ‹ select a major poet and invite other poets to reflect in prose essays on a favorite poem of their choice.

Despite being held in high regard nationally and internationally by poets and readers alike for its quality and symposia, Field has remained largely unknown among students and even some faculty. This is, in part, because of what makes Field what it is: a magazine devoted solely to poetry without advertisements, funded in part by the College and grants from institutions such as the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Although it has up to now remained a quiet enterprise, Field is looking to expand its readership in the future. Linda Slocum, who took over as managing editor last year, is currently working toward realizing Field's goal of tripling its subscription rate in the next two years.

The Rilke symposium, like those that have come before it, including such figures as Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and William Carlos Williams, among others, promises to introduce new readers to Rilke and at the same time to open him in new ways to those already familiar with him.

Speaking of the importance as well as the unique quality of the symposia, Young said, "What poets have to say about poetry is an important alternative to literary criticism. Poets bring the perspective of makers to their reading, which cuts through some of the nonsense of industrial strength criticism."

From its beginning, Field has been concerned with fostering an on-going conversation about poetry among poets. One of the primary concerns of Field's editors is maintaining a willingness to subject all its submissions to the same stringent criteria, which results in each issue containing poems by both established poets and first-time publishers. While this is generally accepted practice among literary magazines, it is particularly true of Field; the last issue contained 10 poems by previously unpublished poets, and several more by those who have yet to produce a collection.

In addition, Field remains open to a wide array of poetry, rather than restricting itself to a certain aesthetic or school of style. Because of this concern with continuing a dialogue about contemporary poetry, Field remains actively involved with poets. "Field was begun as a response to a perceived need to publish work that the editors felt was important and deserved to be," Walker said, "and it has continued to be actively engaged with poets."

Reading the magazine, the poems as well as the essays contribute to this feeling; they speak to one another within and across issues about the questions and concerns important in poetry today. And they illustrate through their quality what poetry and thoughts about poetry should aspire to be.

Collins, who along with Alexander began editing Field with Young and Walker after long-time editor Stuart Friebert retired in 1998, is able to attest to Field's vitality both as a writer and editor. Collins, who had met Friebert at a conference shortly after she began writing, had published her work there for many years. This led to an invitation to give a reading at Oberlin, and eventually to her applying to fill Friebert's vacancy in the creative writing department. Once she was offered the position, Collins said, "The reason I came here was because of Field. It had come to feel like my poetry home; my work is hard to define and categorize, and I appreciated that Field appreciated that."

Field's history, although extending over 30 years, has like its quality remained remarkably consistent. With the exception of the introduction of the symposia, the format of the magazine has remained largely unchanged since the first issue. Long-time readers have grown to anticipate Field's trademark postcard covers, and to value and trust the selection of what fills the pages between them. Editors have changed over the years as faculty members and visiting writers have passed through the College, and with those changes new writers were brought into the magazine. Still, Field's essential commitment has never changed, and it remains a major forum for contemporary poetry.