March 2021

Zoom with Rebecca McClanahan, Ilya Kaminsky, and Molly McCully Brown

KR’s virtual reading series continues this month with appearances by three immensely talented, widely acclaimed writers. On Tuesday, March 9, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, we’ll hear from Rebecca McClanahan, the author most recently of In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays. The series continues on Thursday, March 25—also at 7:00 p.m. EST—with a joint reading by Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, and Molly McCully Brown, KR Fellow, and the author most recently of the essay collection Places I’ve Taken my Body. In addition to reading, the writers will answer questions from the audience. Click here to register for these Zoom-based events.

And if you missed our two exciting February readings, you can catch recordings online. On February 23, we hosted Geetha Iyer, the Mellon Science and Nature Writing Fellow at Kenyon College. On February 9, a virtual event featured Shira Erlichman, Ross Gay, and Saeed Jones. Click here to watch videos of these events.

Why We Chose Our Contest Winners

BY IRA SUKRUNGRUANG, CONSULTING EDITOR

So you agree to judging this contest, a contest of your favorite form of writing—short nonfiction. . . . You love this form, write this form. It is a form of urgency, a form that does not waste time because it has no time to waste. It is a form that needs to capture the attention of the reader immediately and keep the reader captivated. It is a form that can be just about anything, do just about anything, take the shape of just about anything. Anything. It’s a lovely word. It’s a word of possibility. Consulting Editor Ira Sukrungruang, the judge of our 2020 short nonfiction contest, reflects on this genre in the Mar/Apr issue of the Kenyon Review, where the winning stories and the two runners-up are published. Read the rest of his essay.

The New Issue: Return to Nature

In addition to the nonfiction contest winners, the Mar/Apr Kenyon Review includes “Nature’s Nature,” our seventh annual special poetry section centered on “nature, the environment, and ecological witness,” as Poetry Editor David Baker describes it in his introduction. The thirteen writers in this year’s edition, Baker says, offer “intonations [that] range in astonishing variety from solace to shock, from mournfulness to warning to sensuous richness.” Also in the new issue: fiction by Chigozie Obioma and Winona León as well as nonfiction by Philip Metres. Subscribe or order a print or digital copy today!

Kenyon Review Out Loud

The riches of the latest issue are, as always, available in audio form, online. In most cases, the poems and stories are read by the authors themselves. This month, for instance, you can hear Rita Dove reading “The Spring Cricket Observes Valentine’s Day” (and how could anyone resist that title?). Listen here.

Join Us at AWP

The conference is virtual this year, but we’ll be there—and, being online, “there” means everywhere. If you’ve registered for AWP, which runs from March 3 to 7, please come see us at the Kenyon Review virtual booth. (Yes, real people will be there, on screen.) To sweeten your visit, we’re offering $10 off a one-year print or print + digital subscription.

Workshops Update

A few spaces are still available in this coming summer’s Writers Workshops—online sessions in fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, spiritual writing, and translation. Note that the spiritual writing workshop (June 20-26) will have two sections: one devoted to poetry, taught by Kaveh Akbar; the other devoted to prose, taught by Jaime Quatro. For complete information on the workshops, instructors, and application process, click here.

From the KR Blog: “Poetry as the Best Kind of Healing: An Interview with Ali Black”

BY LAURA MAYLENE WALTER

January 25, 2021

I knew early on that I wanted to write a book that centered Black life in Cleveland, which meant I’d be writing a book about violence, suffering, illness, friends, family and love. The book never strayed away from that. . . . I don’t think I could face the world if I did not write about the things I witness and go through. I’m a fairly quiet person. I carry a lot inside. I get it all out through writing. Read the entire interview with Ali Black, whose debut poetry collection, If It Heals at All, was published by Jacar Press in 2020.

MARCH 2021 
CONTENTS
Reading Series
Why We Chose It
Mar/Apr 2021 Issue
Kenyon Review Out Loud
Join us at AWP
Writers Workshops
From the Blog

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