February 2022

Jan/Feb Virtual Issue Launch

On January 26, Kenyon Review Editor Nicole Terez Dutton hosted a virtual launch for our Jan/Feb 2022 issue, featuring three of the magazine’s award-winning contributors: Cameron Awkward-Rich, Lan Samantha Chang, and Cate Marvin. Awkward-Rich read five poems, two of which appear in our Jan/Feb issue, and have the same title: “It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times.” (That line comes from A Tale of Two Cities, of course, and later in the evening Awkward-Rich mentioned that he’s listening to that Dickens novel as an audiobook.) Chang read an excerpt of her novel The Family Chao, an homage to Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which was just published by W. W. Norton on February 1. And Cate Marvin, who said she was “very excited to have poems in the Kenyon Review,” gave a powerful reading of several poems from her forthcoming book Event Horizon, including “Friend of the Flies,” which appears in this issue of KR. Order your copy of the issue here.

During the lively Q & A after the readings, one audience member wrote in the chat: “Please do these events for every launch of a new issue!” These virtual launch events will indeed be a regular occurrence, so stay tuned for information about the virtual launch of our Mar/Apr 2022 issue!

Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize Winner

Over 1,400 high school students submitted their poems to our annual Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize this year and it was a pleasure to read their work. We’re delighted to announce that the winner is Sophie Bernik, a tenth grader at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, whose poem, “Come Closer,” was selected by acclaimed poet and essayist Molly McCully Brown. Sophie Bernik will receive a scholarship to our Young Writers Workshops this summer, and her poem will be published in an issue of the Kenyon Review later this year. The two runners-up are Madison Xu, an eleventh grader at the Horace Mann School in New York City, for the poem “For My Father Who Lives Alone,” and Myra Kamal, an eleventh grader at Rancho Solano Prep School in Scottsdale, AZ, for “Diptych on Getting from Point A to Point B.” The two runners-up will also be published in KR and they will receive partial scholarships to our Young Writers Workshops. Congratulations, writers!

Young Writers Workshops

We’re excited to welcome high school students ages 16–18 to our summer workshops. For young writers, the chance to write on the beautiful campus of Kenyon College can be life-changing. As one participant said, “The sense of community here is unreal. Being comfortable enough to open up with people I just met is something that I will cherish forever.” And the inspiration will last long after the summer ends: “My notebook is filled with so many ideas and poems and stories—it should keep my fire fueled for at least another decade.” Applications to the residential workshops (June 26–July 9 and July 17–30) are due by March 1. Need-based financial aid is available, so apply now.

And for those who can’t travel to Kenyon, we’ll also be offering virtual workshops for young writers this summer. We’ll begin accepting applications for online workshops in mid-March. Learn more

Writers Workshops for Adults

There’s still time to apply for our popular residential workshops, scheduled for two sessions this summer: June 12–18 and July 10–16. The extraordinary faculty includes Ramona Ausubel, David Baker, Dan Beachy-Quick, Marie-Helene Bertino, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Victoria Chang, Leila Chatti, Alexandra Kleeman, E.J. Levy, Terese Marie Mailhot, Dinty W. Moore, Carl Phillips, Jamie Quatro, Bennett Sims, and Grace Talusan. All workshops are generative, so you will get to write every day. Learn more.

But you don’t have to come to Kenyon to write with us this summer! We’ll soon open applications for our online workshops. Stay tuned for more information.

Free Workshops for Teachers & Adjuncts

On Saturday, January 22, we hosted three free online workshops for teachers and adjuncts, to acknowledge the enormous stress they’ve been under during the past two years of the pandemic. Award-winning writers Ross Gay, T Kira Madden, and Tracy K. Smith led the workshops, which proved inspiring and restorative. Writers who are also teachers rarely have time to work on their own projects during the academic year, so we wanted to give them two hours to devote to their creative practices. Poet/teacher Seth Leeper tweeted, “I’m so grateful to have been a part of the wonderful and restorative workshop led by Ross Gay. Thank you @kenyonreview for creating this space for us. This is just what I needed to keep going!” And Chris Wagner described the workshop with T Kira Madden as “cathartic,” adding that “[it] did more for my soul than I express. I preach self-care to my students a lot. This was good self-care.” And a participant in Tracy K. Smith’s workshop wrote to say, “I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to share a couple of the poems we discussed with my students.” Thank you, teachers, for all you do.

Weekly Writing Prompts

Kenyon Review Writers Workshops are generative, giving participants inspiration and time to create new work. In honor of that generative spirit, we’ll be sharing a new writing prompt on Twitter and Instagram every Sunday. Here’s the first prompt, which we posted on January 23:

Weekly writing prompt: set a timer and write for fifteen minutes (poetry or prose) about an object in an unexpected place. A snow globe in a gutter? A mitten in a mailbox? Imagine the scene and let your words fly.

FEBRUARY 2022 
CONTENTS
Jan/Feb 2022
Grodd Winner
Young Writers
Writers Workshop
Free Workshops
Writing Prompt

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