Osiris was born Tuesday, April 11, 1972, in a small white house along New York Route 43 in the town of Averill Park, New York.
1972 was a long time ago, in terms of culture and society, outlook and expectations. We took chances, gathered people together, allowed voices to be heard… A list of early contributors reminds us that we were many different voices in the beginning…
Robert Lepper, Richard Schoenwald, Martin Robbins, Jacques Bussy, Rina Lasnier, Joseph Bonenfant, Robert Marteau, Si Perchik, B.Z. Niditch, Hélène Dorion, Michel Cosem, Hans Raimund, Peter Nim, Gyula Illyes, Thansis Hadjopoulos, Flavio Ermini, Imants Ziedonis, Judita Vaiciunaite, Eugenio de Andrade, Marin Sorescu, Irma Klainguti, Enrique Lihn, Mahmud Darwish, Jibanananda Das, Jordi Albert, Claus Carstensen, Henrik Nordbrandt, Pia Tafdrup, Stefann van den Bremt, Jan Kostwinder, Paul Snoek, Miriam Van Hee, Debashish Banergi, Fred Cogswell, Robert Dassanowsky, Owen Davis, Peter Dent, Kendall Dunkellberg, Jim Elledge, John Falk, Peter Fallon, Raymond Federman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Finch, Peter Ganick, Albert Maquet, Giorgio Bellini, Madeleine Gagnon, Ingrid Swanberg, Frances Presley…
Context? Evolution? Future? Each issue is an act of faith, a Kierkegaardian leap of faith. Is there anything out there? How can we include the very young, those whose voices are so vital to the continued evolution of the community of artists and writers. Perfection is not a necessary element; the monotonous formulaic use of language that often characterizes academic writing is something we do not embrace. Rough-edged, at times, audacious (this takes many forms), so gentle the surface appears non-existent…all these are valuable…
Osiris can be read from cover to cover; there is a conscious ordering of elements. Each echoes or anticipates or concludes and intensifies the one it precedes or follows. Each issue is a whole, a gesture, a movement towards something beyond each contributor’s work.
2025. Osiris 100. We’ll see how the future evolves.
Osiris Poetry 