This prize is made possible by the Alberta duPont Bonsal Foundation, whose aim is to support the careers of young female poets and visual artists. The second is the Fence Modern Poets Series, in conjunction with Saturnalia Books, and which is open to poets of any gender and any stage in their publishing careers, be it first or fifth book. Guidelines for both book contests will be available on our website in September. As with any venture, Fence will be continued until it is no longer fun. The question of utility comes up in my mind frequently, as I have witnessed in just these three years a sea change in the rigidities of both experimental and conservative communities, that which Fence originally arose to combat.
Fence is a new journal of poetry, fiction, criticism, and art.
Its editors are writers, artists, participants in the cultural throng who are dissatisfied with the stratified, self-consuming body of literary journals available. Our contributors are those whose work sits resolutely on the fence, resisting easy definition. We are convinced that mystery, as it is manifested in the subjective voice, is a legitimate and pleasurable by-product of the agency of the author. We intend to be literally didactic, to enclose territory for an unhindered, unburdened encounter with the discussion of theories, styles, histories, movements, and tastes. Fence offers its readers a richesse of literacy, one that is populist not by virtue of condescension, but by its lack of presumptions.