November 2018

Happening Now: KR Literary Festival

This is the week to be in Gambier, Ohio. The annual Kenyon Review Literary Festival kicked off on Monday, November 5, and continues through Friday. Upcoming events include a reading-with-violin-performance inspired by Rita Dove’s acclaimed book Sonata Mulattica, on Tuesday, November 6, along with readings by novelists Hilary Plum (November 7) and Emily Fridlund (November 8). The festival culminates on Friday evening with a keynote lecture and booksigning by Dove, the winner of this year’s Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. Join us! Click here for a complete schedule of festival events.

Why We Chose It

BY CAITLIN HORROCKS, ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, FORMER FICTION EDITOR

“Not Here to Make Friends,” by Clarence Harlan Orsi, appears in the Nov/Dec 2018 issue of KROnline.

Joseph, the protagonist of Clarence Harlan Orsi’s story “Not Here to Make Friends,” is desperate to win The Art of War, a fictional reality TV show whose contestants have been flown to Dubai to make art out of military castoffs from the Iraq War, everything from dusty uniforms to artillery shells, empty MRE containers, and punctured tires. As the story opens, the judges are critiquing Joseph’s latest contest entry, a mannequin wearing “the ironic pool-party gear Joseph finished crafting just an hour before: a camo bikini with gas masks for bra cups.” Read the rest of “Why We Chose It.”

Deadline Approaching for Young Poets Contest

The Kenyon Review is continuing to accept submissions for the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, open to high school sophomores and juniors worldwide. Poets can submit their work electronically through November 30. The winning poem, along with the poems of the two runners-up, will be published in KR. In addition, the winner receives a full scholarship to either our Young Writers Workshop or Young Science Writers Workshop in summer 2019. Learn more about the contest.

Writers Workshops: Application Site Opens This Week!

The online application site will open later this week for our Summer 2019 Writers Workshops. Yes, now, earlier than ever! And we encourage you to apply early, as we have a rolling admissions policy: we’ll admit applicants for our limited number of spaces, starting this week, and continuing until all the spots are taken. Whether you’re an accomplished professional or a hopeful beginner, you’ll be energized by our superb instructors and a “generative” approach that calls for fresh writing every day. Add the stunning beauty of the Kenyon College campus and the spirit of camaraderie, and you have a perfect creative sojourn.
Here’s the lineup, with sessions and instructors:

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

Read more about the workshops here.

Explore the Nov/Dec Kenyon Review

“The opposite of not existing / is shopping,” writes Brandon Amico in his poem “Customer Loyalty Program.” Amico is one of five poets represented in “Getting and Spending,” a special section in the just-published Nov/Dec issue of the Kenyon Review. Both money and poetry are systems of symbols, notes section editor David Baker, who adds that while “poetry resists commodification,” it doesn’t stand entirely apart from commerce. The new issue of KR also includes work by the winners of the 2018 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, as well as fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Subscribe or order a print or digital copy today!

For Your Listening Pleasure: Subscribe to Kenyon Review Out Loud

Tell me a story. Read me a poem. We never outgrow the pleasure of entering into invented worlds through that original, most intimate medium, the human voice. For lovers of contemporary literature, moreover, it’s a treat to hear writers read their own work. Those are the reasons we introduced “Kenyon Review Out Loud,” a selection of recorded readings from each new issue of the journal. Now you can enjoy KR inscribed on the page, posted online, and caressing your ear. Grab your headphones and close your eyes (unless you’re driving). Click here for the latest out-loud readings.

New in KR Podcasts

Daniel Poppick talks with KR’s own Andrew Grace about fragmented language, the life of a working poet, and his two collections of poetry, Police and Fear of Description. Listen to it!
Also, in recognition of National LGBTQ+ History Month, we present a bonus podcast in which Timothy Bussey talks to Richie Hofmann, Juniper Jordan Cruz, and Claire Oleson about the importance of LGBTQ+ literature, queer readings of traditional novels, queer and trans biographies, themes of resistance in LGBTQ+ writing, and more. Listen to it!

From the KR Blog: “On The English Patient”

BY AATIF RASHID

October 8, 2018

Whatever one thinks of its sentimentality and its self-seriousness, the story at the heart of The English Patient, both in the book and the movie, is emphatically not a defense of British colonialism or a narrow depiction of white people—it is, in fact, a powerful indictment of nationalism and borders and one that advances a complex view of identity that our culture today could learn from. Moreover, I would argue that the sentimentality is actually necessary for such a story—because the vision at its core, of an “earth without maps,” is so fleeting and unattainable that the only way to capture it, in prose and on screen, is with all the overwrought pathos one can muster. Read the entire essay.

NOVEMBER 2018
CONTENTS
2018 Literary Festival
Why We Chose It
Grodd Poetry Contest
Writers Workshops
Nov/Dec 2018 Issue
Audio Selections
KR Podcast
From the Blog

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