April 2018

Why We Chose It

BY KIRSTEN REACH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

“Chickens, 2019,” by Claire Boyles, appears in the Mar/Apr 2018 issue of the Kenyon Review.

What will survive the human race? Do you believe there’s one creature, or one species of plant, that is here to stay? In Claire Boyles’s new story, the answer is simple: hens. Roosters are dumb and self-centered, but a hen know when to hide from the rain, how to dodge predators, when to brood and convince others to leave her alone. There are many ways to begin a story, but not as many as you’d think begin with the dangerous work of hiding chickens from the government.
Read the rest of “Why We Chose It.”

Workshop, Festival Focus on Spiritual Writing

If you’re a writer who wrestles with questions of being and faith along with questions of literary craft, you can take advantage of two stimulating programs in the next few months. For an immersive writing experience, enroll in the Kenyon Review’s Spiritual Writing Workshop, which runs from July 7–14 on the Kenyon campus in Gambier, Ohio—part of the extraordinary lineup of KR summer workshops. And to gear up for the workshop, attend the Festival of Faith and Writing on April 12–14 at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. KR is one of the festival’s sponsors and will have a booth there, and a number of writers associated with KR will be speaking or presenting. Apply to the KR Spiritual Writing Workshop, and learn more about the Festival of Faith and Writing

Summer Writers Workshops: News, Updates—and a Note of Urgency!

A number of our 2018 workshops are now close to full. So if you’ve been tempted by this opportunity to treat yourself to a week of serious, and seriously exhilarating, creative endeavor, now is the time to act. In addition to longstanding workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, we venture into nature poetry and spiritual writing. Here’s a link to all the information you need to apply. And here are some updates on our offerings:

Scholarships are still available. Scholarship aid is still available for workshop participants, specifically for the workshop in translation and the workshop designed for high school teachers. “The Translator’s Voice: A Polyglot Workshop” runs July 7–14. “The Writers Workshop for Teachers” runs July 7–12.

Enter playwrights, writing (and revising). It’s not too late to apply for the KR Playwrights Conference, June 10–16, where writers hone their art with the help of resident playwrights and the literary managers from major theater companies. See why former participants, like Donna Hoke, find the conference “invaluable to playwrights.”

Savor a seminar. The ingredients of our seminar series: gifted teachers, fascinating topics, and a relaxed setting. This summer’s seminars focus on classic films, still-life drawing, great American presidents, and the Velvet Underground. Learn more here.

Get the details on all of the KR Writers Workshops, and apply now!

KR Fellows Offer a Farewell Reading

KR fellows Jaquira Díaz and Margaree Little, who complete their two-year residencies at Kenyon in June, will read from their work on April 11, as part of the journal’s spring reading series. The reading marks a ceremonial farewell for the fellows, who enriched Kenyon’s literary life through teaching and participation in an array of KR programs, while pursuing their own creative projects. Díaz and Little also distinguished themselves by creating “Resistance, Change, Survival,” an online series in which writers have responded to issues thrown into relief by the 2016 presidential election. A special cause for celebration: Little has just published her first poetry collection, Rest (Four Way Books). The April 11 reading takes place at 4:10 p.m. in the Cheever Room, Finn House. Click here for the entire reading series schedule.

Masterful Poet, Brilliant Teacher: Jennifer Clarvoe Retires

Jennifer Clarvoe, a leading figure of and for poetry at Kenyon for nearly thirty years, retires from the college’s English faculty this June, and the English Department is honoring her by hosting a reading on April 19. Clarvoe will read older work as well as poems from a manuscript-in-progress. “Jennifer’s poetry never fails to astonish me,” says KR Associate Editor Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, who notes that she strikes a balance between “raw emotion and ironic self-awareness,” in part through a mastery of poetic form and deep knowledge of the poetic tradition. Clarvoe has published two collections of poetry: Invisible Tender (2000) and Counter-Amores (2011). As a teacher, Clarvoe stresses both scholarship and creativity; she teaches students to “read like poets,” says Lobanov-Rostovsky. Her course “Prosody and Poetics,” steeping students in formal strategies spanning centuries, has been a mainstay of the creative-writing curriculum. Indeed, Clarvoe created the emphasis-in-creative-writing option within Kenyon’s English major when she joined the faculty in 1990. She has also overseen the Ohio Poetry Circuit and the Great Lakes Colleges Association Writers Series. Lobanov-Rostovsky says: “We will miss her brilliance, her generosity, and her sheer joy in the teaching and practice of poetry.” The April 19 reading takes place at 4:30 p.m. in the Cheever Room, Finn House.

April at Kenyon, When Poems Flutter in the Breeze

We can’t prove it, but we’re sure of it anyway: Nobody celebrates National Poetry Month with more delight and playfulness than the Kenyon Review—or, more accurately, than the KR student associates, who organize Poem in Your Pocket Day every year on the Kenyon College campus. This year the big day at Kenyon is April 24 (two days before the national celebration), and it features a reading by Phillip B. Williams, the author of Thief in the Interior. But poetry will permeate the entire day, across campus and village, via pocket-size poems festooning trees, benches, lampposts, walls, and buildings (including KR’s home, Finn House). It’s a day when you can expect to be accosted by somebody with an impish glint and, yes, a poem to pass on—in person, aloud, con brio. And it’s infectious: you end up tapping someone else on the shoulder, so that you can share a poem yourself. Above all, it’s a day for everyone to discover new poets and new poems, and to rediscover the music of words. Join in! The April 24 reading takes place at 4:10 p.m. in the Cheever Room, Finn House.

Resistance, Change, Survival: “On Fear in the Year of Trump,” by Leila Chatti

My mother is afraid of next to nothing—rats and separation. So when she calls me in hysterics, her breathing labored, her voice sharp and tinny, I know to be frightened because she is frightened, my mother who is afraid of next to nothing, my mother who says you need to come home, you need to come before they get you, come home right now so we can leave.
Read the entire essay, in which Chatti evokes the fears coursing through America, and more personal, visceral, existential fear. “What does it mean to belong to a land?” she writes. “For those of us who live away from our private history, the question never heals.”

New in KR Podcasts

Anishinaabe poet and former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser speaks with Janet McAdams, Robert P. Hubbard Professor in Poetry at Kenyon College, about picto-poems, watery places, and Native writing in the twenty-first century. Listen to it!

From KROnline: “Slow”

BY SUSAN STINSON

The first pressure I put on my knee made me wince, so I put my palms down on the step, turned my torso, and straightened my knees, slowly lifting my hips. I was very aware of my belly. Shame was there, along with annoyance with all of them, and a wish to be generous, to make the moment easier. I also had a feeling of such difference, of finding myself out of the category of a casual interaction and into the category of—what?—a problem. Read the essay.

From the KR Blog: “Ways To Be Marvelously Supportive (or Critical) of Community Focused Projects”

BY SHAUNA OSBORN

March 21, 2018

I have never seen a confrontational and aggressive conversation with someone over volatile topics like racism, homophobia, politics, and religious persecutions go well. I believe in human frailty, pride, good intentions, and fallibility—especially when it comes to community work.
Read the rest of the essay.

A Micro-Conversation with Tommye Blount

Blount’s poem, “Icarus Does the Dishes,” appears along with another poem in the Mar/Apr 2018 issue of the Kenyon Review.

What was your original impetus for writing “Icarus Does the Dishes”?
Often one is told don’t write about your parents, or even your family, for that matter. The thinking, I guess, is: no one really cares about such a small sentimental narrative. And another thing: we really don’t need another darn poem with Icarus and Daedalus floating around in it, do we? This poem was a challenge to myself: follow the bad idea to see where it might lead me. Read the entire interview.

New Micro-Reviews from KROnline

In March, we introduced a new feature in our series of micro-reviews. Twice a year, in March and September, the short reviews will be completely dedicated to recent collections of poetry in English translation. At a time when there’s so much talk about building walls, we highlight the work of those who are busy tearing them down. We’ve brought together a gifted and diverse team of poet/translators eager to expand KR’s commitment to showcasing the best in poetry from around the world. Read the latest micro-reviews.

APRIL 2018
CONTENTS
Why We Chose It
Spiritual Writing
Writers Workshops
KR Fellows
Clarvoe Retires
Poem in Your Pocket
Resistance, Change,
   Survival
KR Podcast
From KROnline
From the Blog
KR Conversations
Micro-Reviews

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