Seeking to provide new writers from around the world with a magazine in which their work could appear alongside the work of already established writers, Illuminations made its first appearance in Columbia, South Carolina in 1982 under the editorship of Peter McMillan. The issue featured poems by Seamus Heaney, Stephen Spender, and newcomer Sam Boone. Subsequently edited from England, Japan, and Tanzania, the magazine is once more back in South Carolina shedding light on new writing from around the world. In order to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the 2000 issue featured poems, photographs, and interviews from and about Vietnam. In August 2001, Illuminations went Latin, with poems from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Chile, featuring writers such as Reinaldo Arenas, Jorge Valls, Adrian Castro, Sandy Castillo, and Virgil Suarez, and photographs of Havana and of Cuban fishermen by Craig Barber and Kimberley Narenkivicius. The 2002 issue had a more strongly local flavor, with a review of the movie O. by novelist Caryl Phillips and photographs of Charleston's Eastside by Nancy Santos, along with the usual eclectic range of poems. The 2003 issue similarly set off poems from all around the world against some stunning photographs of Afghanistan taken late in 2001 by British photographer Simon Norfolk. Issue 20 (August 2004) celebrated the 80th birthday in November 2004 of South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus, and includes tributes from Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Nadine Gordimer, along with poetry and prose from a host of Brutus's friends and admirers in South Africa, Nigeria, and the United States. August 2005 was a truly celebratory 21st birthday special featuring some 62 poets from 14 countries (including translations of poets from France, the Netherlands, and Spain), and photographs of the American Southwest by Michelle Van Parys. The 22nd Issue (August 2006) paid tribute to Haitian culture in Haiti's 202nd year of independence by assembling a rich mixture of poetry and prose by Felix Morisseau-Leroy, Denize Lauture, and Frank Etienne, and a sampling of artwork by Maxo Lauture. The current issue (August 2007) features dignified portraits of New Orleanians taken by Harold Baquet before Hurricane Katrina's devastating assault on the city. Brenda Marie Osbey broadens the Haitian focus of Issue 22 in offering a critique of French colonial history, and together with works by Allan Kolski Horwitz, Damian Garside, Neil Curry, and many others, this issue bears witness to the truly global nature of contemporary anxiety and suggests that poetry may offer us some hopeful balm.
© Rathasker Press, 2004 Department of English College of Charleston 66 George Street Charleston, South Carolina 29424 USA Phone: (843) 953-1993 Fax: (843) 953-3180
6-Sept-2007
