August 2019

Why We Chose It

BY MISHA RAI, KENYON REVIEW FELLOW

“You Know I Want It Ice Cold,” by Rachel Heng, appears in the May/June 2019 issue of the KROnline.

In prose, whether fiction or nonfiction, the second person point of view—where the story is told as if to another character using the word you—is notoriously hard to pull off. The declarative nature of this point of view can feel confrontational where the “you” in the narrative inadvertently imposes its narrative life onto the readers, bringing them somewhat into the story. Done badly, the second person point of view can also come across as gimmicky or tedious to read, especially if the writer’s hand lands heavy on producing a shocking experience for the reader as opposed to creating an emotional connection. Read the rest of “Why We Chose It.”

Fancy Pens, Hashtags, and Mom’s Proud Tweets

You want to be published. In fact, you want to be published so badly that you actually begin to write instead of just talking about it. Our summer writing workshops have ended, and we can think of no better way to evoke the creativity they ignited than by sharing a bit of fresh work—on the writing life, actually. Fresh is key. The KR workshops are “generative”: writers don’t come to discuss older work but to write, and write, and write some more. Case in point: Ellen Weeren of Fairfax, Virginia, who, as part of her fiction workshop with Nancy Zafris, plunged into a free-write one day and found herself playfully pondering the fantasies and insecurities that come with literary aspiration. Enjoy the result, a gem called “Hashtag_Am Writing.” Click here to read the piece.

Thanks and Congratulations!

While we’re talking about the 2019 Writers Workshops, we should point out that their success—in terms of talent, energy, wonderful work, and diverse voices—owed a lot to two special groups of writers. First, we’d like to thank our Peter Taylor Fellows, who attended the workshops as both participants and teaching assistants. Second, we’d like to congratulate fourteen workshop participants who won partial scholarships through a $20,000 grant from the Amazon Literary Partnership, a program that supports literary organizations with the goal of “uplifting and amplifying overlooked and marginal voices.” The KR scholarships were based on merit and were awarded through a competitive application process. Click here to see a list of the 2019 Peter Taylor Fellows.

Heed the Dates: A Shorter Submission Period

As we noted last month, the 2019 submission period for the Kenyon Review and KROnline will be shorter than usual—a one-time change tied to David Lynn’s retirement and the anticipated arrival of a new editor. We will be reading submissions from September 15 to October 1. Take heed and plan ahead! Click here for more information about the 2019 submissions period.

New in KR Podcasts

Kenyon Review Associate and Intern Trudy Wrona interviews Meg Freitag about her new poetry collection, Edith, which explores grief and trauma through poems addressed to Freitag’s dead bird. Listen to it!

From the KR Blog: “Verve {in} Verse: In Conversation with Emilia Phillips”

BY ROSEBUD BEN-ONI

July 15, 2019

For musicians, it begins alone in the practice room, toiling for incalculable hours perfecting technique, learning notes for upcoming concerts and fleshing out how the music will be rendered. But the alchemy occurs in rehearsal where a necessary sacrifice surfaces: your ideas are either torn to bits or incorporated. Musicians must tolerate both. Read the entire essay, which contrasts the essential comprises of the musician with the writer’s “power of one.”

Proof Casts a Shadow: Outside, Inside

The latest contributions to “Proof Casts a Shadow,” the KR fellows’ project exploring issues of injustice and identity, look at America from perspectives both inside and outside the dominant culture. In her essay “My Summer of Miranda Lambert,” Chaya Bhuvaneswar reflects on the experience of moonlighting, as a physician, in a military clinic. And poet Raquel Salas Rivera evokes both Caliban and the American Dream in selections from antes que isla es volcán (before island is volcano). In addition, and poet and visual artist Xandria Phillips offers a new work, “untitled.” Click here to see the work, both new and older, in “Proof Casts a Shadow.”

Congratulations to . . .

. . . Keith S. Wilson, the KR fellow in poetry in 2018-19, who has received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Author of the recently published Field Notes on Ordinary Love (Copper Canyon Press), Wilson is one of thirty-three recipients of the 2019 fellowship in poetry. The NEA’s creative writing fellowships provide grants of $25,000, with the aim giving writers the time and means to produce new work.

AUGUST 2019
CONTENTS
Why We Chose It
Workshop Reflection
Peter Taylor Fellows
Submissions Period
KR Podcasts
From the Blog
Proof Casts a Shadow
Congratulations!

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