By Emily Friedman and Alex Edel

It’s all Greek to Weber

The Antioch Review will feature English department head Larry Weber’s poem “Charon’s Humor” in the fall 2007 issue.

“Charon’s Humor” is a poem concerning the mythical character Charon, ferryman of the underworld.
In Weber’s 18-line poem, Charon thinks about how he got the worst job in the world: shuttling newly dead people to the other side of the river Acheron.

The character wonders why he has this job and makes a joke at his own expense.
Weber completed the poem about two years ago after 30 to 40 drafts, he said.
The publishing process was quick for Weber.

“I was lucky,” he said. “It only took around five or six weeks.”

The process began when Weber sent four poems to the Antioch Review to go through a filtering process, narrowing the selection from around 1000 submissions to just 75 for the poetry editor to look at.

“I assume failure,” Weber said. “It is hard to get published in a good journal like that. I hoped that the editor would at least just say something.”

Weber has been writing poetry since the fifth grade.

He started truly getting into it in college but it took turning 35 for him to really feel like he was doing it, he said.

From his own work, “Charon’s Humor” is not Weber’s personal favorite, though it has been the most successful.

“It is up there, but I don’t think it is quite my favorite,” he said. “I don’t like everything I try, that’s for sure.”
“Charon’s Humor” is not the first of Weber’s work to be published.

“This is one of a few. One is published every couple of years,” Weber said. “I’d like to increase the rate, but I don’t write quickly so I have to be patient.”

Some of his other works have been published in Southeast Missouri State’s journal the Cape Rock, Euphony of the University of Chicago and in an anthology called Heroic Voices.

“I want to keep trying to get into journals and then get a book together,” Weber said, “Those are my goals.”

Here’s looking at Yoo

English teacher Stephanie Yoo’s short story “The Ladies of Sheung Wan” was published last spring. 
It was published in “Cheers to Muses” which is “an anthology of contemporary visual and literary art by Asian American women,” according to the Asian American Women Artists Association, a non-profit organization supporting women artists.

Yoo said she has been writing for over 10 years and has published over 14 stories.

“The Ladies of Sheung Wan” is about the friendship of two old Asian women living in Hong Kong who both collect cardboard and rely on each other.