NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

This, the first edition of BRAVADO, is a well-produced A4 size literary magazine of 50 pages. It contains both fiction and poetry and is supported by the Tauranga Community Arts Council. The title indicates the magazine's ethos — to publish writing that is showy and brave — full of bravado and generally speaking it lives up to this objective. Fiction and poetry are present in approximately equal amounts. One of the best known poets represented is Stephen Oliver, author of twelve poetry collections. In THE GREAT UNSAYING Stephen Oliver writes powerfully about the moment in Genesis 11:4 when

the Lord came down to see the city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.

	He brought with him, and in the turbulence that
	surrounded him, memories of words knotted along the
	rope of language, the iron roar of the rabble rising
	and falling, the flayed backs of the orators retreating.

The first two poems GREY DAY INLAND by Leonard Lambert and the longer OUR NATIONAL RAINFALL by Alison Collings, seem to reflect an almost English obsession with the weather and rain. There are some good descriptive passages:

	we need a drawbridge to scamper over
	and then pull up against the rain.  
	No good merely trying to shelter
	beneath the drawbridge.
	For here lies the pike water and the moat mud
	and the tireless pike, waiting
	through clenched jaws.

	not much has changed —
	today the chill of stone
	in the air-conditioning
	and faith in the machine

Apart from some 20 poems, all worth reading, there is also a good and varied selection of eight short stories that I enjoyed. NEIGHBOURS, for instance, a fairly surreal tale by Andrea Ellis is about Norm Bell, an obsessive gardener who meets his match in his new neighbour Dolce —

her skin has the dark, almost purplish bloom of a ripe plum and she is pierced with jewels in her tongue, nose and ears and even places you don't want to know about.

It's not a ferry, is it. Mummy? It's our ship we came on". "Our ship going home", mummy agreed. "Emma ran along the shore. If she could catch the ship she could go home and be with all her friends".

The magazine also contains a VIEWPOINT section with I'M GOING TO WRITE A BOOK ONE DAY by Raewyn Alexander, "TAURANGA — ARTSVILLE OF NEW ZEALAND?" by Christine Cloughley and INTRODUCING... by Monika McGee. There is also a commentary of NEWS AND REVIEWS by Jenny Argante and a final section of contributors' notes.

Bravado's first issue is interesting, well produced and enlightening and I hope to hear more of it in the future. It deserves a long and successful life.

A4 format, stapled with 54 pages. There is a mixture of poetry and prose. There are also articles and reviews. Jenny Argante tells a well balanced, and appealing, short story about a girl living in the midst of war:

Once there was a time when she and Abdullah went with their mother to market. No more. A time when she would dress in her crisp cotton uniform and they'd walk to school together. When her father filled the house with his height and his huge bellows of rage and laughter. When her mother knew how to smile and her brothers got on with their growing.

	flicking the waves a shag's wingtips

	furled buds
	of the maple
	a dusting of snow

	school's out
	the snowman sags
	into the playground