Skanky Possum is a twice-a-year poetry journal and small book-publishing imprint in Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Edited by Hoa Nguyen

Hoa Nguyen

Hoa Nguyen is an American poet.Born in Vĩnh Long, near Saigon, in 1967, Hoa Nguyen grew up in the Washington D.C. area and studied poetry at New College of California in San Francisco. She now lives in Austin, Texas where she leads the ....

 and her husband, Dale Smith

Dale Smith (poet)

Dale Smith is an American poet, editor, and critic. Smith was born and raised in Texas and studied poetry at New College of California in San Francisco...

, it has published some of the best cutting-edge poetry in America, featuring both well known names and up-and-coming poets. Discussing small poetry journals, Linh Dinh

Linh Dinh

Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...

 observes, "Although most of these are ephemeral, appearing for only a few issues, with tiny circulations, their existence invigorates American literature." Skanky Possum is among the best and oldest.

In recent years, this staple-bound magazine has published several poems selected for The Best American Poetry series., including four of the 75 poems in the 2002 edition, selected by Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...

. "In poetry circles, their magazine is highly regarded," Crispin Jessa writes in Bookslut, "Skanky Possum has printed the works of Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...

 and Tom Clark

Tom Clark (poet)

Tom Clark is an American poet, editor and biographer. Clark was born on the Near West Side of Chicago and educated at the University of Michigan where he received a Hopwood Award for poetry. On March 22, 1968, he married Angelica Heinegg, at St. Mark’s Church, New York City...

." . Poems by Clayton Eshleman

Clayton Eshleman

Clayton Eshleman is an American poet, translator, and editor.-Life:Eshleman has been translating since the early 1960s. He is the recipient of the National Book Award in 1979 for his co-translation of César Vallejo's Complete Posthumous Poetry...

, Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly

-Media:* Robert Kelker-Kelly , American soap opera actor* Robert Kelly , American standup comedian* Robert Kelly , American poet...

, Linh Dinh

Linh Dinh

Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...

, Eileen Myles

Eileen Myles

Eileen Myles is an American poet who has also worked in fiction, non-fiction, and theater.She won a 2010 Shelley Memorial Award.-Early life and career:...

, Kenward Elmslie

Kenward Elmslie

Kenward Gray Elmslie is an American writer, performer, editor and publisher associated with the New York School of poetry.-Life and career:...

, Rachel Loden, Alice Notley

Alice Notley

Alice Notley is an American poet. She was born in Bisbee, Arizona and grew up in Needles, California. She received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1967 and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1969. She married poet Ted Berrigan in 1972, with whom she was active in...

, Anselm Hollo

Anselm Hollo

Anselm Paul Alexis Hollo is a Finnish poet and translator. He has lived in the United States since 1967.-Life and work:...

 and Diane di Prima

Diane di Prima

Diane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan...

 have also appeared.

The magazine's first issue ran in the fall of 1998

1998 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Samizdat poetry magazine founded in Chicago .* Skanky Possum poetry magazine founded in Austin, Texas....

. The annual circulation of the magazine is roughly 300 copies. Smith and Nguyen also publish a few poetry books a year under the name Skanky Possum

External links

• http://www.skankypossum.com/ Skanky Possum Web site
• http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~wh/news/skunky.html Article about Skanky Possum at The Daily Penn, student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania
• http://home.jps.net/~nada/nguyen.htm Interview with Hoa Nguyen
  Hoa Nguyen
  Hoa Nguyen is an American poet.Born in Vĩnh Long, near Saigon, in 1967, Hoa Nguyen grew up in the Washington D.C. area and studied poetry at New College of California in San Francisco. She now lives in Austin, Texas where she leads the ....
  
  
• http://www.bookslut.com/features/0303/possum.htm Bookslut interview with the founders of Skanky Possum