The LBJ: Avian Life, Literary Arts

Little brown job, or LBJ, is birder jargon for a sparrow or other bird that is, well, little and brown. Mostly nondescript, these birds often go unnoticed. And when seen, they can be difficult to identify. Yet, these are fascinating creatures whose beauty is evident to those who take the time to look.

This new publication, also known as the literary bird journal, has much in common with these birds besides a shared acronym. Small and understated, it doesn’t assert itself with a large, glossy cover boasting a brilliant photograph of some spectacular bird. But like the other LBJs, a closer look will reveal much that is worthwhile.

The LBJ, published twice a year, is dedicated to birds and creative writing. The writing takes the form of creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and reviews. And the birds are the stars, or at least the supporting actors.

Here is how the content of the first issue is allocated among these categories. The first number is how many entries there are, and the second is the percentage of the 120 pages of writing that these entries make up.

• Creative Nonfiction – 6; 43%
• Fiction – 2; 9%
• Poetry – 22; 33%
• Reviews – 8; 17%

The subject matter, of course, is going to vary wildly. Under the nonfiction banner, you will find an ex-park ranger wondering why feeding backyard birds is treated differently than feeding the wildlife in the Alaskan wilderness. But also a newlywed relating a pair of Ospreys with her new and unfamiliar life.

My favorite, and apparently the editors’ as well since it won the inaugural Sparrow Prize for Prose, was an unconventional tribute to the Ovenbird. Reading this essay was as fun as hearing the subject’s strident song echoing through the woods.

The two fictional stories couldn’t be more different from each other. I was surprised to find that one of them was, in fact, fiction. It reads like someone remembering a childhood experience. It was very convincing in that regard, but overall just ok. The other was obviously a fictional story, which is good because it wasn’t a happy one. It was a little clunky and affected at times, but most definitely succeeded in producing a strong reaction.

I must confess – I’m not a big fan of poetry. I don’t have anything against it in general; it’s just that, for the most part, I don’t get it. Even if I understand what the poet was trying to say, it doesn’t affect me in the way they probably intended. I share this so that you can take my comments accordingly, or just totally disregard them if you wish. Most of the poetry here didn’t do anything for me. There are, however, a few exceptions. I definitely agreed with the selection of a poem about a window-killed bird as the winner of the poetry prize.

The final kind of writing included in this journal is literature reviews. Poetry collections and “literary” books are fair game. That means field guides and other technical books will not be included, but you will find such titles as The Life of the Skies and Of a Feather. The reviews were very well done, and I was obviously very happy to see them included.

In addition to all this writing, each issue will have a featured artist. For this issue, Barry Kent MacKay has provided 9 beautifully painted bird portraits. One, a Song Sparrow, is used for the cover. The others are presented as full-page color plates. This is a surprising, but very welcome, inclusion. They add a nice splash of color!

Recommendation

It would be unfair to judge this journal on the basis of a single issue, as it will only be as good as the individual contributors.

As for the first issue, it was ok. Some of the submissions were truly excellent, but I’d say that the majority didn’t do much for me. However, the nature of this format means that such opinions are even more subjective than usual. For instance, poetry fans would probably get much more out of those entries than I did. On the other hand, I enjoyed the reviews, whereas others may consider them a waste of space.

But The LBJ definitely has promise. Anyone who’s a fan of writing and birds should at least check it out. Personally, I am going to subscribe, because I can’t get enough writing on birds, and I want to see how it evolves. Who knows, maybe I’ll even come to appreciate poetry more…

You can subscribe, contribute, or find out more about it on the LBJ’s website.