November 2021

Why We Chose It

BY ELLIOTT HOLT, DEPUTY EDITOR

“Unknown” by Bennett Sims, appears in the Nov/Dec 2021 issue of the Kenyon Review.

Bennett Sims’s story “Unknown” is a sinister exploration of what we don’t know. The protagonist lets a strange woman in a shopping mall use his phone because she claims it’s an emergency. He’s suspicious from the beginning: “He felt certain it was a scam. But when he revolved the scenario in his mind, he could not make out what the nature of the scam would be.” How perfectly that verb “revolved” captures the mind of this man, who obsessively turns everything around, again and again, as his distrust deepens into paranoia. Read the rest of Why We Chose It.

Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize

Young writers: send us your poems! We’re accepting submissions through November 30 for the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. The contest, created in 2007, is open to high school sophomores and juniors worldwide—last year, we received more than 1,300 entries from young poets in forty-six US states and forty foreign countries. The winner receives a full scholarship to our Young Writers Workshop, and the winning poem will be published in KR, along with the poems of the runners-up. This year’s judge is the acclaimed poet and essayist Molly McCully Brown, a KR contributing editor—and a previous Grodd Prize winner. Learn more about the contest.

2022 Short Nonfiction Contest

Maggie Nelson, the esteemed author of books including Bluets, The Argonauts, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, and, most recently, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, will judge the nonfiction contest. Nelson is the recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an NEA fellowship.

We’ll accept nonfiction contest submissions from December 1 through December 31. The word limit is 3,000 words (up from 1,200 in the past). See the KR website for more information.

2022 Short Fiction Contest

Karen Russell, one of the country’s most acclaimed short fiction writers, will judge our short fiction contest. Russell is the author of three story collections, most recently Orange World, the novella Sleep Donation, and the novel Swamplandia!, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and one of the New York Times’s Ten Best Books of 2011. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim award, and is a former fellow of the NYPL Cullman Center and the American Academy in Berlin.

We’ll accept short fiction contest submissions from January 1 through January 31, 2022. Here, too, the word limit has increased to 3,000 words. The KR website has more information.

Read the November/December Issue . . .

Two of many reasons to dive into the Nov/Dec issue of the Kenyon Review: “Our Lady of Thread,” a poem by Dayna Patterson that’s rich with images of sewing and even includes evocative sketches of stitching; and “Manywhere,” the spellbinding title story of Morgan Thomas’s debut collection, forthcoming in January 2022 from MCD, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The new issue also features the winner and runners-up of KR’s 2021 short nonfiction contest. Subscribe or order a print or digital copy today!

. . . And Bear with Us, Please!

We know that some of you have had to wait to receive your copies of the magazine. Unfortunately, we’re struggling with the same supply-chain and delivery problems as the rest of the publishing industry (and so many other industries around the world). We’re working hard to get the Kenyon Review into your hands, on time. We apologize for delays and appreciate your patience and understanding.

Kenyon Review Out Loud

KR Out Loud offers another way to enjoy the Kenyon Review, as contributors read their work aloud. Among the writers featured in KR Out Loud this month are poets O-Jeremiah Agbaakin, Kai Carlson-Wee, and Lindsay Stuart Hill. Listen here.

Next Up in KR’s Reading Series

• Wednesday, November 17, 7:00 p.m. EST: KR Deputy Editor Elliott Holt talks with Marcela Fuentes, Bennett Sims, and Hananah Zaheer, all of whom have fiction in the fall issues of KR. Click here to learn more about the writers and to register for this Zoom event.
• Thursday, November 18, 7:00 p.m. EST: Amy Butcher discusses her newly published memoir Mothertrucker with KR Associate Director of Programs Elizabeth Dark, in person at Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio. Learn more and register for this in-person event.
• Tuesday, December 7, 7:00 p.m. EST: KR Editor Nicole Terez Dutton talks with Linda Gregerson, Richie Hofmann, and Rajiv Mohabir, who all have poetry in the fall issues of KR. Learn more about the writers and to register for this Zoom event.

Note: If you missed our previous online readings, you can watch videos of the events online. Click here for more information..

Presenting Our New Winter Online Workshops

One of the great things about our summer writing workshops is that participants leave wanting more—more of the intense engagement, community, and supportiveness that energized their writing. In response, for both Young Writers and the Writers Workshops, we’re introducing an array of online workshops in January and February. We had extraordinary success with Zoom-based programs last summer, when the pandemic canceled on-campus activities at Kenyon. We discovered that participants and instructors bonded, nurtured one another, forged friendships, and grew as writers, even though on-screen had to replace in-person. Moreover, because nobody could come to Gambier, we were able to serve writers no matter where they lived, including overseas. These new online offerings will build on that success, while serving to complement the summer workshop experience—both online and in-person. Here’s what we’re planning:

• Young Writers will offer eight workshops on Saturdays and Sundays from January 22 to February 27, with each session lasting two hours. The workshops will involve a variety of genres and topics—for example, “Writing to Change the World” and “Form and Formlessness: Traditional and Experimental Poetry.” Times will vary so as to accommodate students in different time zones. Participants in these winter workshops can still apply for our on-campus and online workshops in the summer. Applications will open in mid-November, with rolling admissions. Financial aid is available. Learn more here.
• The Writers Workshops: For writers in need of mid-winter inspiration, we’re excited to offer online classes in February. These deep dives into specific craft topics will meet for two hours each week. And then in the summer, after a two-year pandemic hiatus, we’ll welcome writers back to Gambier, Ohio for our popular residential program. Since 1995, these generative workshops have provided writers with a nurturing space to take creative risks and push their writing to the next level. For those who can’t take time off for a residential workshop, we’ll also offer an online summer program, with a unique opportunity to learn from three different faculty members in one genre-specific workshop. We’ll have more information to share in December, so check our website then.

NOVEMBER 2021 
CONTENTS
Why We Chose It
Poetry Contest

Nonfiction Contest
Fiction Contest
Nov/Dec 2021
Shipping Delays
KR Out Loud
Reading Series
Workshop Offerings

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