August 2021

Submission Period Opens September 1

Sharpen your pixels! Our next submission period will open on September 1 and run through September 30. We consider short fiction and essays, flash fiction and essays, poetry, plays, and excerpts from larger works. With rare exceptions, we handle submissions electronically, through submittable.com. Find guidelines on the submissions section of our website, and check the website again on September 1, when more details will be available.

Remembering Nancy Zafris

The community of American letters lost an exceptional voice and generous spirit with the death of Nancy Zafris on August 1. The loss was personal for the Kenyon Review family, who knew Nancy as not only a superb writer but also a dear friend, a talented fiction editor, and a phenomenally gifted teacher. Nancy created the generative model for our writing workshops and returned to the Kenyon campus, summer after summer, to lead sessions in fiction writing. She was an astute reader who, with tireless generosity and wry humor, helped hundreds of writers discover new possibilities for their work. Only a few weeks ago, Nancy and some fellow workshop faculty members were asked what kept them going amid life’s struggles and hardships. Without missing a beat, Nancy answered simply, “Language.” Language is the very thing that feels hard to come by in this moment. But we hope you will try. Nancy’s family has created a space to share memories and has suggested ways by which to honor her through donations. All of this can be accessed through the obituary that appeared in the Columbus Dispatch.

KR Welcomes Elliott Holt as Deputy Editor

We’re delighted to announce a new addition to the Kenyon Review staff: Elliott Holt, who joined the team last month as deputy editor, bringing diverse talents to the organization. “Elliott is a tremendously talented writer and editor with years of experience within the publishing industry,” said Editor Nicole Terez Dutton.

An award-winning writer, Holt is known for her 2013 novel, You Are One of Them (Penguin) as well as for short stories and nonfiction in publications such as Virginia Quarterly Review, Slate, and the New York Times. She served on the editorial staff of One Story magazine and, since 2013, has been a freelance editor of novels and short story manuscripts. She has taught both creative writing and literature, most recently at New York University. With earlier jobs in advertising and brand strategy internationally, she is adept at helping organizations focus their work around well articulated missions. Moreover, as a 1997 graduate of Kenyon College, she has long familiarity with KR.

“The Kenyon Review has a storied past,” said Holt, “and I’m so excited to help Nicole Terez Dutton reimagine it for the future.”

Thanking Poetry Editor David Baker

Some farewells deserve special note. That’s certainly true for our longtime poetry editor, David Baker, who announced his retirement this summer. The distinguished poet, author of twelve collections of poetry along with six critical books, had been the Review’s poetry editor for twenty-five years, bringing a multitude of new voices to KR while mentoring hundreds of poets as a Writers Workshop instructor. Former editor David Lynn praised Baker for his high standards and the catholicity of his tastes, calling him a “backbone” for the Review. Baker himself said: “I’ve tried to be as representative as I can, to find the very best of many kinds of poetry, so that the magazine over time looks like poetry in this country. I feel really privileged to have done this work for so long.” Read more about David Baker’s career at KR.

Damnation Spring Comes to Gramercy Books

Our partnership with Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio, continues on August 23 with an online discussion of Ash Davidson’s novel Damnation Spring, moderated by KR Editor Nicole Terez Dutton. Just published by Scribner, Davidson’s debut novel is at once a family saga and a nuanced portrait of life in a Pacific Northwest logging town torn by a mystery that threatens its way of life. Click here to learn more and to register.

A Summer like No Other

For KR, summer means writing workshops on the Kenyon campus, where over the years we’ve perfected a recipe for amiable creative intensity—a blend of work, people, and place. The big question in 2021, when the lingering pandemic eliminated most on-campus activities, was whether we could refresh the recipe for writers forging a community online. Could we replicate, for both our adult and high-school writers, a sense of flourishing so dependent on in-person interaction amid village rhythms and natural beauty? A short answer can be found in the comments that workshop participants sent us. “Wow, what can I say? This past week feels like the start of a turning point in my writing life.” “Everybody’s incredible kindness and openness made this workshop a treasure.” Read more about the challenges and successes of the Writers Workshops and Young Writers.

AUGUST 2021 
CONTENTS
Submission Period
Remembering Zafris
Welcoming Holt
Honoring Baker
Damnation Spring
KR Summer Recap

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