Compost: A Journal of Art, Literature, and Ideas. Issue No. 6 (Fall 1995). (Compost Magazine)

22 yrs ago, a guy named Bush was president, the country in the midst of turmoil in the Middle East, although the president enjoyed unprecedented support, seeds of opposition were spreading. Boston was experiencing a harsh recession and Jamaica Plain became a low-rent mecca for aspiring artists, musicians, writers. A blend of inspiration, naiveté, technology, and vision led a handful of artists to found compost magazine. Their mission was to facilitate understanding of the world's people through art and literature by re-internationalizing poetry in the United States, showcasing emerging and established artists in the Boston area and across the continent. Each issue contained a feature on the poetry of a culture other than mass culture USA, a section featured established and emerging writers from the U.S., and a section that presented Boston-area artists and writers. Much of the inspiration for compost's international slant came from James Laughlin and the translator Kenneth Rexroth. In this issue (essays, interviews, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translations (French and Chinese): Vaclav Havel, Bernice Zamora, Ovid, James Laughlin, Antonin Artaud, Sam Magavern, Bei Dao, Zhang Zhen, Duo Duo, Gu Cheng, Meng Lang, Daxian, Zi An, Song Lin, Leo Romero, Wendell Berry, Nickole Brown, Don Boes, Diana Der-Hovannesian, Norma Elkins, Davis McCombs, Ron Whitehead, Margie Nicholl, P. Carey Reid, Leroy Quintana, Eduardo Machado, Jack Powers, Sam Cornish, Joseph DeRoche, Robert Daly, Raquib Abbal-Khabbir, Margaret Kay, Doug Holder, Cindy Schuster, Sue Standing, Kevin Bowen, Charisse Coley, J. Wright-Ryan, Joyce Peseroff. Artists: Pablo Gonzalez, Mari Spirito, Robert Daly, Greg King, Margie Nicoll. Photography: Marshall, Peter Harris. Translators: Catherine A. Solmons, Clayton Eshleman, Bernard Bador, Yanbing Chen, John Rosenwald, John Cayley, Gregory B. Lee, Beth McKillop, Martha Nussbaum, Gray Zeitz.