January 2020

Swift Strokes: Short Fiction Contest Now Open

At KR, we begin every year by celebrating the power of brevity, in the form of our Short Fiction Contest. So, welcome to 2020: surprise and delight us! The (online) doors opened on January 1 and stay open until January 31. The contest is open to all writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. Submissions must be 1,200 words or fewer. The final judge will be Misha Rai, the current KR Fellow in prose, whose work has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award and received a notable mention in the 2019 edition of Best American Essays. The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story in the Jan/Feb 2021 issue, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2020 Writers Workshop in Gambier, Ohio. Click here to read the full contest guidelines and submit your story.

Why We Chose It

BY SOLMAZ SHARIF, GUEST EDITOR

“I Can’t Hear You When You’re Screaming” by Carolina Ebeid, appears in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of the Kenyon Review.

The title makes me think of an argument between lovers, or else between parent and child, or else between members of a nation. I imagined this bit of speech would be followed by a narrative poem, or else something at least rooted in a single “I,” but it is not until reaching the end of the poem that we see all the ways the poem will resist expectation. Even the title will be rewritten in the poem, “screaming” changed out for “whispering.” Unwinding in a string of images, the poems revises and contradicts itself softly. Read the rest of Why We Chose It.

Young Writers Workshop: Apply Now!

If you’re a high school student who loves to write—in any genre, in every genre—the KR Young Writers Workshop offers a great way to pursue that passion in the company of kindred spirits and inspiring teachers. We’re now accepting applications for both of our sessions: June 28-July 11 and July 19-August 1. These intensive two-week workshops are designed for students, ages 16 to 18. 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.

Young Science Writers: A Workshop for You!

Science is a realm of curiosity, investigation, and wonder—and of story, character, and poetry. They all come together in the KR Young Science Writers Workshop, for students ages 16 to 18. We’re now accepting applications for the 2020 workshop, which runs from June 28 to July 11. The program, which makes use of Kenyon College’s laboratories as well as its nature preserve, entails reading and writing assignments that draw on genres ranging from research articles and journalism to essays, stories, and poems. The application deadline is March 1, and need-based financial aid is available. To learn more, visit the Young Science Writers website.

And Don’t Forget the Writers Workshops

Applications for the KR Writers Workshops have been coming in since November, and we expect the pace to quicken as people finalize their summer plans. We have a rolling admissions policy, and sessions can fill up fast. So now is the time to act! Here’s a snapshot of what we’re offering this summer:

June 21-27, 2020
Fiction: Angie Cruz, Caitlin Horrocks
Literary Nonfiction: Rebecca McClanahan, Dinty W. Moore
Poetry: Kimiko Hahn, Carl Phillips, Shara McCallum, Solmaz Sharif
Spiritual Writing: Kaveh Akbar, Jamie Quatro

July 12-18, 2020
Fiction: E.J Levy, Karin Lin-Greenberg, Ira Sukrungruang, Nick White, Nancy Zafris
Literary Nonfiction: Geeta Kothari
Poetry: David Baker, Dan Beachy-Quick, Natalie Shapero
Translation: Katherine M. Hedeen and Elizabeth Lowe
Writers Workshop for Teachers: Erick Gordon, Brad Richard
Read more about the workshops here.

Not to be Missed: KR Spring Reading Series

Poet Natalie Shapero returns to Kenyon on January 23 to kick off KR’s Spring Reading Series. Shapero, who teaches at Tufts University, is the author most recently of the collection Hard Child, shortlisted in 2018 for the International Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also a former KR Fellow who now serves as editor at large. Following Shapero on January 28 is Michael Croley, author of the story collection Any Other Place. On February 11 we mark the fiftieth anniversary of women at Kenyon College with a joint reading by widely published fiction writer Caitlin Horrocks ’02, author of the 2019 novel The Vexations; and Allison Joseph ’88, whose many books of poetry include the recent Confessions of a Barefaced Woman. Click here for the complete schedule of Spring 2020 readings.

Jan/Feb Issue Doubles the Pleasure

Two special features grace the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of the Kenyon Review, which has just been published. The issue offers a special poetry section, “Of Today,” gathered by guest editor Solmaz Sharif. The nine poets featured here display a “full awareness of apocalypse, present and already survived,” Sharif writes in her introduction. “There are calls for us to shed some old and find some new ways of relating and belonging and raging.” The new issue also includes “Brown Girls,” by Daphne Palasi Andreades, winner of the 2019 Short Fiction Contest, along with the two runners-up: “Solitária,” by Emily Everett, and “You Break It, You Own It,” by Susan Falco. (Note that you can watch Andreades reading her winning story in the video section of our website.) Subscribe or order a print or digital copy today!

KR Out Loud

When we talk about literary voices, we mean that, well, literally—as in KR Out Loud, wherein the authors in every issue of the Kenyon Review read their work aloud. A large selection of the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of the Jan/Feb issue is now available for your listening enchantment. Click here to get started.

New in KR Podcasts

We have two podcasts to share this month. First, editor at large Katharine Weber reflects with novelist Stewart O’Nan about his earlier work, co-writing a novel with Stephen King, and how other writers’ books inform the writing of one’s own. Listen to it!
Also, poet Monica Sok, a Peter Taylor Fellow during our 2019 Writers Workshops, interviews poet and workshop instructor Carl Phillips about vulnerability, vision, and his process of letting go of a writing project. Listen to it!

From the KR Blog: “Poetry Today: Silence and Technology”

BY RUBEN QUESADA

December 10, 2019

“Poetry for me is a reminder of language’s vastness by means of interruption,” writes poet and visual artist Xandria Phillips in this first installment of a series by Ruben Quesada. “Without poetry,” Phillips continues, “my life often feels like a set of regulated speech patterns, the autopilot with which I survive benign and banal slivers of discourse.” Quesada has undertaken this series as a way of exploring the function and nature of poetry by asking poets to reflect on their experience and compositional practice. Read the entire piece.

Out There: KR Associates in the World

Cameron Messinides, who graduated from Kenyon College in 2019 with a degree in American Studies, worked with the Kenyon Review not only as a KR Associate but also as a Publicity Intern, designing posters for readings. His experience with KR and his resourcefulness—he basically taught himself both graphic design and coding—served him well after graduation. Cameron now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he works at Tamman, Incorporated, as a web developer, helping to make websites of all kinds more accessible. Current intern Tariq Thompson ’21 interviewed him in December. Read the interview here.

JANUARY 2020
CONTENTS

Short Fiction Contest
Why We Chose It
Young Writers
Young Science Writers
Adult Workshops
KR Reading Series
Jan/Feb Issue
KR Out Loud
KR Podcasts
From the Blog
Associate Spotlight

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