cover image Quarterly, No.4

Quarterly, No.4

Lish Gordon. Vintage Books USA, $5.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-394-75537-3

Much in the spirit and bravado of Ted Solotaroff's New American Review, published in trade paperback in the 1970s, The Quarterly, or Q, hits its stride with this fourth issue. The contributors are young writers (no author biographies are supplied; nor does Q publish any reviews). This latest anthology of ""New American Writing'' dished up by Gordon Lish, fiction editor at Esquire from 1970 to 1977 and currently a Knopf editor, includes hot stories by Yannick Murphy, Amy Hempel, Mark Richard (an astounding new writer out of the South) and a Texas talent, Diane Desanders. The crazy brio of ``The Entrepreneurs,'' by Chris Spain, a Stegner writing fellow at Stanford, alone is worth the bargain price. Poetry includes new work from Sharon Olds, Thomas Lynch and Lynda Gregg. A section called ``To Q'' presents sundry vignettes, humorous pieces, letters and essays. Black-and-white illustrations by Don Nace round out the volume. (December)