zen_monster.jpgThough the term “Zen Monster” may bring to mind the Buddha-on-Godzilla image from Brad Warner‘s Sit Down and Shut Up, Zen Monster is actually a new magazine full of politics, religion, criticism, poetry, fiction, book reviews, and art. It’s described as “a voice for independent poets, artists and writers outside of any hierarchical or ecclesiastical Buddhist affiliation.” It’s very pretty, too, thanks to designer Charles Rue Woods, a longtime friend of Tricycle.

Contributors to the first issue include Norman Fischer, Philip Whalen, Susan Bee, Ann Waldman, Gary Snyder, and many more. I opened right up to a bunch of Philip Whalen epistles and Eliot Katz’s Elegy for Allen Ginsberg, plus a photo of a cool sculpture by Steven Siegel, not to be confused with the smililarly named action star / tulku.

Check it out at your local bookstore. Winter 2008 is the first issue. If you want to submit something to them, their email address is fitzunger [at] yahoo [dot] com and their postal address is:

Zen Monster c/o
New York Zen Circle
1032 Woodgate Ave.
Elberon, NJ 07740