Utne Reader's library is abuzz with a steady flow of 1,500 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, zines, and other lively dispatches from the cultural front that are rarely found at big-box bookstores, newsstands, or even online. So we share the highlights (and occasional lowlights) of what's landing in our library each week in 'From the Stacks.' Check in every Friday for the latest edition.

O, lovingly hand-bound journal of literature and art! O, exquisitely letterpressed cover! Beeswax Magazine's beauty captivated me the moment I saw it. And I was delighted to find that Beeswax's editors clearly took this same care with its content. In the recently arrived second issue (Spring/Summer), the stories are engaging, delicately written, and often funny. I laughed aloud reading fictional blog dispatches from Ray Smuckles, an anthropomorphic cat who throws high-end parties nearly every week. I also got wrapped up in illustrations of prisoner personal ads an artist happened upon while online ('Benefits of dating me? No stress -- face-to-face once a week and letters the rest of the time'). Also intriguing: a short story about a 'longtime grocer' and an awkward conversation he overhears while arranging apples. -- Danielle Maestretti

Where nationalities are hyphenated, one can expect to find a culture that's more than the sum of its parts. Hyphen follows cultures and subcultures that form around the union of Asian and American. Not surprisingly, a motif in their Fall music issue is fusion -- the new and often controversial sounds that come of merging tradition and innovation. 'The Vibrations of Lineage' traces how classical Indian music has changed from a traditional practice subject to 'a strict code of lineage and patriarchy' to a contemporary genre that's influenced by technology and musicians' interactions with the West, often to the dismay of older generations. As musician Alam Khan, the grandson of Ravi Shankar's guru, quotes his father: ''There is fusion, and there is confusion.'' -- Evelyn Hampton