New Jersey's FAQ "What's Your Exit?" By JOHN PETROLINO Posted:08/12/10
(multiple images), Click to Zoom
"What's your exit?" a common question that comes from New Jerseyians and those familiar with New Jersey. What's Your Exit? is also the title of the newly released anthology by Word Riot Press (mastheaded by local NJ writer Jackie Corley.) This is a collection of forty-nine diverse poets, essayists, and fiction writers, et.al, all moved by, inspired by or molded by The Garden State. New Jersey has a particular reputation through the country and in the foreword some of this is highlighted "New Jersey had gotten such a pop culture lift as of late...the ominous Sopranos finale-set in a diner filled with quintessential Jersey images such as onion rings, truckers, ‘80's lite-rock on the jukebox, a daughter outside who cannot for the life of her parallel park her expensive sports car-still fresh in everybody's minds; Springsteen and Bon Jovi still touring and releasing music like time had stood still; reality shows tapping into the last great resource: spoiled Jersey housewives...."
What's Your Exit is conveniently organized in three sections: Coming, Going and Staying. Thematically the stories, poems and essays are grouped. The editors also created two-sub table of contents: The Parkway and The Turnpike. Here pieces are organized by which exit they would be associated with.
The writers and pieces of What's Your Exit are as diverse as New Jersey its self. Geography plays a big role and ranges from Jason Biggs' Scratch-and Sniff, where "you realize/that the smell was coming from outside, a combination of/landfill and oil refineries that I always thought would make/a good scratch-and-sniff sticker. /I'd call it ‘New Jersey'" to Michael Aaron Rockland's Blood Ditch, pedaling "across the northern limits of the Pine Barrens, which occupy fully one-fourth of New Jersey, the trees became dwarfed and the soil beside the highway gave way to sand. It was as if someone had drawn a line across the land...The Pine Barrens were once under sea and will be again, no doubt."
Subjectively, What's Your Exit? covers the heartwarming to the harrowing. In Spider Boy, the multi award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates serves us a chilling story about kidnapping and murder. Mark by J. Robert Lennon is also filled with mayhem, shovels and disappearances. In the third section of What's Your Exit? we're given a trifecta of pieces revolving around, having to do with or inspired by Christian Saints. There are tales about overcoming odds, winning small battles, the underground culture, crime, violence, home, diversity, fishing and the beat goes on.... As reader's we are also graced with an extraordinary essay (poetry as well) by two-time Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky about Long Branch, entitled Salt Water and also a fabulous contribution by Gerald Stern, Bullet in my Neck, an essay about being shot.
Traveling through the world of literature, one could chronicle the changes at Word Riot Press. Once it was a small literary online publication that eventually moved into the world of publishing serious work by serious writers. Word Riot broke into print as a small independent publishing house, printing the work of several up and coming writers...nothing about What's Your Exit? is small and is a true testament of the maturation of one of New Jersey's finest publishing houses. Editor's Joe Vallese and Alicia A. Beale, did a fantastic job putting together one of the best contemporary collections of New Jersey literature. Some notable contributors mentioned on the cover (smart looking and designed by David Barringer) include: Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Pinsky, Tom Perrotta, J. Robert Lennon, James Richardson, Jason Biggs, Alicia Ostriker, Gerald Stern, Louise Desalvo and James Hoch.
Whether you are a native of New Jersey or someone who may be partly interested by the lore and draw of this diverse state (or hate NJ for that matter), What's Your Exit? is a must read. This is an anthology to put out on the table and read bit by bit. If you fall into the category of "Going" and are already gone, treat yourself to a slice of home once in awhile. If you fall into the category of "Coming", read about what may or may not be in store for you. And if you're "Staying", submerse yourself in your neighborhood and embrace what our fine state has and continues to offer you.
