July 2021

Why We Chose It

BY SERGEI LOBANOV-ROSTOVSKY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

“Caduceus” by Perry Lopez, appears in the July/Aug 2021 issue of the Kenyon Review.

For your first night, I think you did very good.

What else can you say to a man who’s soaked in blood? The narrator of Perry Lopez’s savage story “Caduceus” is a new EMT, working the overnight shift as an apprentice ferryman of souls in a city where the local news broadcasts pandemic statistics and tear gas fills the streets. His first call is what the experienced EMTs call an FTF (failure to fly), so he starts his shift “bloody and dumb as a newborn.” The night goes downhill from there. Every tragedy this city can produce is part of the new guy’s learning curve, and the only way to learn is by doing. Read the rest of Why We Chose It.

Rosse Event Series: Last Chance to Join!

There’s still time—but just a few days!—to register for the Rosse Event Series, our online program of readings and panels on literature and the craft of writing. The second week of the series opens on Sunday, July 11, with a keynote conversation between Heid E. Erdrich and Louise Erdrich (winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for The Night Watchman). Registration gives you access to all twenty-two Rosse Series events, including those that took place (and were recorded) from June 20 to 26. The last day to register is Saturday, July 10. Learn more here.

Subscribe and Save

KR is celebrating summer by offering a sweet discount on the price of a subscription. Through the end of July, you can save 20 percent on subscriptions of one, two, three, or four years. That’s a lot of imagination, insight, and inspiration at a more affordable price. Take advantage of this offer now by using the discount code SUMMER21 in our online store.

Apply Now for Developmental Editing Fellowship

We are accepting applications through July 15 for our new mentorship program, the Developmental Editing Fellowship for Emerging Writers. Designed to nurture new voices in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, the program pairs each writer with an experienced editor for monthly one-on-one conversations over a period of four months, with the aim of polishing a work-in-progress. Click here for more information.

Now Out: July/August Issue

Just published, the July/August issue of the Kenyon Review features work by two poets who piercingly explore race and historical memory at a time when these issues seem more urgent than ever before. The noted writer Paisley Rekdal (widely recognized for her nonfiction as well as her poetry) offers three poems from the extraordinary online project “West: A Translation,” which she created as the poet laureate of Utah to examine the cultural impact of the transcontinental railroad, particularly through the lens of the lives of Chinese immigrant laborers. The KR blog features an interview with Rekdal, here. The issue also includes two poems by Bryan Byrdlong, whose work—inspired in part by his family’s Haitian background—interrogates the figure of the zombie as it relates to Blackness and Black precarity in the face of white supremacy, and as a general symbol for those struggling with marginalization. Subscribe or order a print or digital copy today!

Kenyon Review Out Loud

Just as re-reading deepens appreciation, listening provides a way to savor and gain fresh insight into creative work. KR Out Loud brings you the poems, stories, and essays of every issue of the magazine, read aloud by their authors. Listen here.

Join Maggie Smith’s Livestream Launch at Gramercy Books

Acclaimed poet and KR Editor at Large Maggie Smith will launch her new collection, Goldenrod, at a “hybrid” event—both in-person and livestreamed—at Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio, with KR joining the independent bookstore as a community partner. The event, to take place on Tuesday, August 3, at 7:00 p.m. EDT, will bring Smith together in conversation with former KR Poetry Editor David Baker. Smith is the author of Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestseller Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. Gramercy Books was founded and is owned by Linda Kass, a KR trustee. Other community partners for the event are Ohio State University’s creative writing program and the Ohio Poetry Association. Click here to learn more and to register.

From the KR Blog: Nickole Brown and Preeti Vangani

BY RUBEN QUESADA

June 22, 2021

Nickole Brown: “I can’t say if the experience of writing The Donkey Elegies will change how I shape my next collection, but it definitely reinforced my understanding of just how flexible the borders between genres can be. Now that I’m researching and writing about animals, the form of the essay can hold what I’m learning in a way that poetry alone can’t, but at the same time, I need the music and energy of poetry to keep those facts aloft.”

Preeti Vangani: “While writing [Mother Tongue Apologize], I often got stuck in the ‘I’ narrative. And a revision process that really helped was to take the ‘I’ out, decentralize the self or at least not let the self be the main character or point of view. This strategy opened up a lot more complex themes for me as situations took on their own voice. In terms of assembling, I played with patterning humor and tragedy/shock in waves—this alternating helped to first befriend the reader and then bring them along on the downward slopes.”
Read more in this latest edition of Ruben Quesada’s series “Poetry Today.”

JULY 2021 
CONTENTS
Why We Chose It
Rosse Event Series

Subscription Offer
Fellowship Opportunity

July/Aug 2021
KR Out Loud
Maggie Smith Reading
From the Blog

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