Generally speaking, I found the poetry more uneven than the
fiction. McCaffery apart, the strong poets seemed to me to be Kate Rogers and Lindsay Alderton. The latter, unpublished until now, contributes three poems, the best about the UK's River Thames, while the former offers some exceptionally fine lyrics, notably one from a mother to her unborn child and another of musings on a moving walkway in Hong Kong.
The magazine also contains many black-and-white photos, some standing on their own, others recruited as backgrounds to the poetry or, occasionally, the fiction. Often the allocation of picture to writing is inspired, and the magazine's layout generally has much to commend it.
The editor's own short story, Embankment, is a highly intelligent piece of work. It could well be sub-titled "Like Father, Like Son." On the surface the events related are simple, but underneath you see the evolution of a child's attitude towards his father. His desire to be adult causes him to emulate his dad, and in this case to allow himself to be coarsened. As with Tomassini's wonderful story about two patients at a clinic in the first issue it constitutes a strong and subtle conclusion to the magazine.
This, then, is a varied and fascinating collection. Pressure to get printed in the magazine's pages has clearly increased, and with this comes a greater variety of material. Pressed remains both free and free of advertising, though a list of businesses, all but one in Taichung, that have contributed to the costs is printed on the back cover.
The next issue will appear in September and writing and artwork are invited on the themes of "derelict and arid." It seems early for centenary celebrations of the publication of The Waste Land, but let's hope there are some lively creations despite these rather somber guidelines. For all inquiries about Pressed send an e-mail to pressed@asia.com.
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