February 2013

Ian Burnette Wins Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers

Ian Burnette, a junior at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina, took first place in this year’s Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers presented by The Kenyon Review. Burnette’s poem “Full Blood” was selected by KR Poetry Editor David Baker from over 500 submissions.

Why We Chose It

By Geeta Kothari, Nonfiction Editor

Stories set in moving vehicles—buses, trains, cars—often give the appearance of movement. The writer establishes a destination, and this often creates a false sense of urgency and suspense. “Care,” by Karin Lin-Greenberg, points out that this sense of movement—in traffic or in life—can prove an illusion. The story starts off with the declarative “You’re a bus driver now,” and already the reader wonders about that now, and what came before it. The immediate problem for the bus driver is Halloween and the resulting mess. “It’s your job to clean it up, even though you’ve written numerous lengthy letters to the Transit Authority regarding the fact that you’re a bus driver, not a maid, and someone should be hired to clean the buses.”

What’s New at The Kenyon Review? Two Innovative Summer Writing Workshops!

KR is now accepting applications for two new summer workshops: a unique workshop devoted to literary hybrids and book arts, which will take place during KR’s acclaimed Writers Workshop, June 15-22, 2013, and an intensive novel workshop, June 29-July 3, 2013. Join us this summer, and expand your writing horizons!

Click here to learn about the novel workshop at Kenyon.
Click here to learn about the literary hybrids and book arts workshop.

Remembering Jake Adam York

With help from all of Jake Adam York’s friends here at Kenyon College, KR will remember him with a memorial service on February 16th at 4pm in the Cheever Room of Finn House. Please join us, bring a memory to share, and stay for some barbecue in honor of Jake’s deep affinity for a good meal with good company.

For those unable to attend, KR has established a scholarship fund in memory of Jake for the 2013 Kenyon Review Young Writers workshop. The scholarship will offer an opportunity for a talented and deserving high school writer to attend this life-changing writing program—exactly the kind of social commitment that Jake cared so deeply about. Most important, the scholarship will honor Jake’s legacy as a teacher and writer, as well as his commitment to social justice through the power of art and arts experiences.

The Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest

The Kenyon Review is now accepting submissions for the sixth annual Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest through February 28, 2013. The contest is open to all writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. Submissions must be 1,200 words or less to qualify for the contest. Katharine Weber, the Richard L. Thomas Chair in Creative Writing at Kenyon College and author of five critically-acclaimed novels, including Triangle and True Confections, will be the final judge.

Join KR at AWP

Visit us March 6-9, at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference at the Hynes Convention Center & Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston. On Saturday, March 3rd, the book fair, with over 500 tables, will be open to the public. KR will be in Exhibit Hall B on the Plaza Level at Booth 1105. Please stop by to say hello, or join us for one of our scheduled book signings:

• Thursday, March 7th, 4pm: KR Fellows Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers and Natalie Shapero
• Friday, March 8th, 11am: KR Editor at Large Lewis Hyde
• Friday, March 8th, 4pm: Spring Issue signing with Linda Bamber, Nona Caspers, Carol Frost, Amina Gautier, Aisha Gawad, William Giraldi, Chinelo Okparanta, Solmaz Sharif, and more!
• Saturday, March 9th, 10am: KR Writers Workshop instructors: David Baker, Gretchen E. Henderson, Rebecca McClanahan, Dinty W. Moore, and Nancy Zafris.

Apply Now for the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop!

Online applications are now available for the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, an intensely creative week-long series of writing workshops held June 15-23, 2013 on the campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

This year’s session includes workshops in fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and hybrid forms/book arts. Workshop leaders include:

Poetry: David Baker • Carl Phillips
Literary Nonfiction: Rebecca McClanahan • Dinty W. Moore
Fiction: Lee K. Abbott • Geeta Kothari • Nancy Zafris
Literary Hybrid/Book Arts: Gretchen E. Henderson and Ellen Sheffield

Apply Now for the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop!

The Kenyon Review is now accepting applications for its Young Writers Workshop, a creative writing adventure for 16-18 year-olds in Gambier, Ohio. Two sessions will be offered this summer: June 23-July 6 and July 14-27.

Young Writers is an intensive two-week workshop for intellectually curious high-school students who value writing. KR’s goal is to help students develop their creative and critical abilities with language—to become better writers and more insightful thinkers.

KR Welcomes New Bloggers!

Have you checked out the KR Blog recently? Join us in welcoming KR’s new bloggers: M. Lynx Qualey, Craig Santos Perez, Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers, and Natalie Shapero. See below for a recent post by M. Lynx Qualey.

Kenyon College / KR Spring Reading Series

Join us for a stellar line-up of readings this Spring at Kenyon College:

• Thursday, February 28th: Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers and Natalie Shapero
• Thursday, March 21st: Beth Bosworth and James Arthur
• Thursday, March 28th: Rebecca McClanahan and Wyatt Prunty

All readings begin at 4:10pm in the Cheever Room of Finn House, 102 W. Wiggin St., Gambier, Ohio.

Tiffany Midge Wins Kenyon Review Earthworks Prize for Indigenous Poetry

We are pleased to announce that Tiffany Midge is the winner of the first Kenyon Review Earthworks Prize for Indigenous Poetry for her collection, “The Woman Who Married a Bear.” An enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux, Midge holds an MFA from the University of Idaho. Her first poetry collection Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of Mixed-up Halfbreed won the Diane Decorah Memorial Poetry Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.

The Kenyon Review, New Series, Winter 1981, Vol. III, No. 1

Snow

Against thin woods, Siberian snow
steadily erases objects from their names,
like weevils in flour rocks crawl under the elms.
There is a place whose year is February.

A red bird on a branch is the one leaf
for acres. Ruffled at where it’s gone,
the Tartar-gold, collapsing canopy
of autumn, it repeats one cry

The Myth of W-a-t-e-r

It was not a single word and there was no utterance.
You may have your play, your frozen moment in time
if these please you. But understand, Teacher lead me
to the well house to distinguish between water and what
holds it for drinking. I held the cup under the pump and she
wrenched the handle.

Click here to finish reading this poem.
KROnline is the online complement of The Kenyon Review. New fiction, essays, poetry, and reviews are published on a biweekly basis. Check back often to read some of the most cutting-edge material you’ll find anywhere on the web. Click here to see our latest offering.

Who Can Write About Iraq?

January 7, 2013 —
M. Lynx Qualey

In the last few months, I have read two recent books set in Algeria. One, The Barbary Figs, is a historical novel written by the Algerian-French writer Rashid Boudjedra (trans. André Naffis-Sahely) and the other, The Algerian Memoirs, was written by French-Algerian journalist Henri Alleg (trans. Gila Walker).

Contents Feb. 2013
Grodd Poetry Prize
Why We Chose It
New KR Workshops
York Scholarship
Short Fiction Contest
KR at AWP
Writers Workshop
Young Writers
New KR Bloggers
KR Reading Series
Earthworks Prize
From the Archives
From KROnline
From the Blog

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