January 2019

1,200-Word Vanishing Act: KR’s Short Fiction Contest Accepting Entries

What’s the magic whereby a very short story captivates you so thoroughly that time and place utterly vanish just as they do when you lose yourself in the world of a novel? There’s no prescription, but we see it happen every year when writers submit to our Short Fiction Contest. Our twelfth annual contest is open now and will be accepting submissions (1,200 words or fewer) through January 31. The contest is open to all writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. The Kenyon Review will publish the winning story in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2019 Writers Workshop in Gambier, Ohio. The judge this year is Mia Alvar, a widely published writer whose story collection, In the Country, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. Click here to read the full contest guidelines and submit your story.

Why We Chose It

BY GEETA KOTHARI, NONFICTION EDITOR

“Governing Bodies,” by Sangamithra Iyer, appears in the Jan/Feb 2019 issue of the Kenyon Review.

The stories of the formerly colonized are the stories of lives disrupted and fragmented, invisible bodies that did the work of the Empire. How to write about those whom history has forgotten is a problem their descendants confront repeatedly; no easy search on Ancestry.com for us. Instead, we have half-told stories, scraps of paper, and inaccessible or incomplete archives. Sangamithra Iyer’s gorgeous lyric essay, “Governing Bodies,” embodies this challenge in language that is both elegiac and clear eyed, lacking in nostalgia and false sentiment. Read the rest of “Why We Chose It.”

New Year’s Resolution: Exercise Your Writing Muscles—in a KR Workshop

Runners chase the “runner’s high.” The KR Summer Writers Workshops deliver a “writer’s high,” for seasoned literary marathoners and fledgling word-joggers alike. OK, enough with the fitness metaphors. The point is that the new year is a good time to commit yourself to your aspirations, and if you’re a writer, you’ll find ample rewards in our workshops, for which applications are open now. “Writer’s high” is no exaggeration. Participants consistently find our workshops energizing—because of the intense “generative” approach (you write fresh material every day) and because of the inspiring instructors, the talented fellow writers, and the conviviality and beauty of Gambier, Ohio. We have a rolling admissions process: it’s selective, but places fill quickly, so apply early! Click here to learn more and to apply, and note that you can listen to podcast interviews with some of our instructors to get a taste of what the workshops are like.

Here’s a quick look at the Summer 2019 lineup:

June 16–22, 2019
Fiction: Nancy Zafris, Ghassan Abou-Zeneiddine,
E.J. Levy
Literary Nonfiction: Dinty W. Moore
Poetry: David Baker, Carl Phillips
Spiritual Writing: Rodger Kamenetz, Lauren Winner

July 7–13, 2019
Fiction: Nick White, Angie Cruz
Literary Nonfiction: Rebecca McClanahan, A.J. Verdelle
Poetry: Natalie Shapero, Solmaz Sharif
Translation: Elizabeth Lowe, Katherine M. Hedeen
Writers Workshop for Teachers: Erick Gordon,
Brad Richard

Click here for more details!

Not to be Missed: KR Spring Reading Series

We’ve put together an extraordinary lineup of writers for our Spring 2019 Reading Series, which kicks off on January 29 with a reading by poet Shara McCallum (pictured). Other poets on the list include Ed Skoog, Chen Chen, Tommy Pico, David Baker (launching his new book, Swift), plus a panel/joint reading featuring Hanif Abdurraqib, Eloisa Amezcua, and Emily Jungmin. In prose, we’ll welcome Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita, and Stewart O’Nan, whose new novel Henry, Himself will appear just before he visits in April. Click here to see the full calendar of readings.

Young Writers Workshop: Time to Apply

Passionate . . . amazing . . . incredible . . . kindness . . . community. Those are some of the words that keep cropping up in participants’ descriptions of the KR Young Writers Workshop, designed for high school students, ages 16 to 18. In the two-week workshop, you take your creative writing into new territory, and to new levels, all while making friends, discovering kindred spirits, and having fun. We’re now accepting applications for our two sessions, June 23–July 6 and July 14–27. The application deadline is March 1, and need-based financial aid is available. To learn more, visit the Young Writers website and watch a video about the program.

And the Same Goes for Young Science Writers

The exhilaration is the same, but the focus is on creativity that embraces science and nature as well as writing. Analysis, lab work, field observation, story, characters, narrative, poetry: they all figure in this immersive two-week workshop. The KR Young Science Writers Workshop, for students ages 16 to 18, will take place June 23–July 6. We’re accepting applications now, and need-based financial aid is available. Click here to learn more.

Now Out: the Jan/Feb 2019 Kenyon Review

Topping the table of contents in the new issue of the Kenyon Review is “Dientes for Dentures,” by Laura Roque, winner of our 2018 Short Fiction Contest. You can see a video of Roque reading her story (in beautiful Gambier) here, and there’s audio of the contest runners-up here. The runner-up stories also appear in our Jan/Feb issue, along with new fiction by Hanna Halperin Goldstein, Gabriela Alemán, and Wendy Rawlings; essays by Sangamithra Iyer and Albert Goldbarth; and poetry by Philip Metres, Elizabeth Bradfield, Rajiv Mohabir, José Kozer, and others. Subscribe or order a print or digital copy today!

Now Listen: Jan/Feb on KR Out Loud

Prefer headphones to eyeballs? Almost all of the stories, essays, and poems in the Jan/Feb issue are available on Kenyon Review Out Loud. Listen as you stroll, drive, wash dishes, or simply sit and chill. Get to know the work, and get to know the voices of the authors. Click here for the latest out-loud readings.

New in KR Podcasts

Elizabeth Dark, KR’s associate director of programs, talks with Katharine Weber about her latest novel, Still Life with Monkey, and about writing fiction that poses moral questions involving loyalty and secrets. Weber is a KR editor at large and the Richard L. Thomas Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College. Listen to it! We’re also presenting podcasts from our 2018 writing workshops. Last month, instructor Afaa Michael Weaver was interviewed by his workshop fellow Alexandra Barylski; they discussed being cultural stewards, staying grounded amid the machinery of getting attention, and viewing the writing workshop as meditation. Listen to it!

From the KR Blog: “We Transform Among Chaos”: A Conversation with Hala Alyan

BY KRISTINA MARIE DARLING

December 11, 2018

Before I started writing fiction more seriously, I considered poetry to be more whimsical, mood-dependent: I’d write when I felt like it. But the last year or so, I’ve noticed a change in my approach to poetry—setting aside pledged time to both read and produce poems. Fiction has taught me to think in more plot-driven ways, which I think has served my poetry, allowing me to start asking myself What’s the story here, what’s the narrative?, even in the most compact pieces. Read Darling’s entire conversation with Hala Alyan, author of a new collection of poetry, The Twenty-Ninth Year, and of the award-winning 2017 novel Salt Houses.

JANUARY 2019
CONTENTS
Short Fiction Contest
Why We Chose It
Writers Workshops
Spring Reading Series
Young Writers
Young Science Writers
New Jan/Feb 2019 Issue
Kenyon Review Out Loud
KR Podcast
From the Blog

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