October 2020

Why We Chose It

BY ELIZABETH LOWE, TRANSLATIONS EDITOR

“Sweat,” by Alberto Fuguet translated from Spanish by Ezra E. Fitz, appears in the Sept/Oct 2020 issue of KROnline. It is an excerpt from Fuguet’s novel of the same name (Sudor in Spanish).

Set in contemporary Santiago, Sweat (Sudor, 2016) is a rollicking and explosive novel about male bonding (in every sense) in the digital age—a modern-day Bonfire of the Vanities (or, to be more precise, Love in the Times of Grindr) that explores the Santiago that tourists visit but never read of. A high-voltage exploration of Latin American urban culture, both satire and full-frontal exposure of the continent’s incestuous literary world, Sweat is unapologetically contemporary: it speaks the language of apps and sex, all while exploring the lifelong theme of our very human desire to ultimately connect. Read the rest of “Why We Chose It.”

The Next KR Fellows: Search Begins

We will begin accepting applications on November 1 for the next Kenyon Review Fellows—two emerging writers, one in poetry and the other in prose, who will join us on the Kenyon College campus to write, teach classes, and assist with editorial and creative projects for KR. The post-graduate fellowship program, started in 2012, offers an exceptional opportunity for emerging writers to advance their careers as they participate in the operation of KR and the cultural life of the college. The two-year position includes a competitive salary along with health benefits. See the fellowship section of the KR website for more information, including a list of past fellows.

Poetry Contest for High School Writers Coming Soon

Starting on November 1, KR will accept entries for the eighteenth annual Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, open to high school sophomores and juniors worldwide. The winner receives a full scholarship to the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, and the winning poem will be published in KR, along with the poems of the two runners-up. Entries, which must be submitted electronically, will be accepted through November 30. Learn more about the contest.

Reading Series Features McOmber, Sawchyn, and the Writers Harvest

Our virtual reading series this fall continues with three events you won’t want to miss:

• Adam McOmber reads on Wednesday, October 14, at 7:00 p.m. McOmber is the author of two queer speculative novels, Jesus and John (Lethe) and The White Forest (Simon and Schuster) as well as two story collections, This New & Poisonous Air and My House Gathers Desires (both BOA).
• Thursday, October 22, again at 7:00 p.m., brings the Writers Harvest, in which we’ll partner with Sunset Press to raise funds to combat hunger in Knox County, Ohio, the home of Kenyon College and KR. Ten Kenyon alumni will read.
• On Wednesday, November 4, at 7:00 p.m., we’ll welcome Alysia Li-Ying Sawchyn, the author of A Fish Growing Lungs (Burrow Press), a collection of linked essays about being misdiagnosed with bipolar at the age of eighteen.

Click here for more information about these Zoom-based readings, at which the authors will also answer questions from viewers.

On Books and Their Harbors

“Displaced from the home I’d only recently begun to make, in the midst of the pandemic, at the height of vital national protests over police brutality and white supremacy, it felt like I was sending work out into a world busy proving over and over again all the things that art can’t do.” For our series On Books and Their Harbors, KR Fellow in Poetry Molly McCully Brown reflects on her sense of loss—but also the support and community she found—earlier this year in launching two books, Places I’ve Taken My Body and In the Field Between Us, with Susannah Nevison (both Persea Books, 2020). And Sunisa Manning, the author of A Good True Thai (Epigram Books, 2020), writes about American resistance to political fiction that doesn’t center on “Whiteness,” and about one bookstore willing “to try the new, to open doors, to sometimes . . . embrace the other.” Click here to read their essays as well as other essays in this series—and to buy the writers’ books.

Status Report: 2021 Summer Workshops

KR plans to resume residential writing workshops during the summer of 2021 but will offer online options if circumstances warrant. Stay tuned for more news. For up-to-date information, keep checking the website.

For now, we’re pleased to announce that our workshop in literary translation, The Translator’s Voice, will run from July 11-23, exclusively online. Designed for aspiring and mid-career translators, the seminar-style workshop will focus on literary translation as a cross-cultural, creative endeavor, using theoretical readings and examples of works of master translators as guides. Synchronous classes and breakout groups will be supplemented by one-on-one conferences. By the end of the session, participants will have finished a polished translation that they can continue to prepare for publication. Applications open on November 2. Click here for more information

From the KR Blog: Reflections on Poetry from Jeffrey Thomson and Jesse Lee Kercheval

BY RUBEN QUESADA

September 22, 2020

Jeffrey Thomson: Writing is about interiority and voice. It is about linguistic play. About metonymy and metaphor, and the compelling power of the well-written image. Just as the screen does things the page can’t . . . the written word creates an interior space that is different but, when done well, is just as powerful. Likewise, as we write, we ask the reader to enter with us into a dream that is only half-made. The reader provides the other half. . . . In the act of reading, the reader brings her own magic to that world.

Jesse Lee Kercheval: Make space in your life for poems. Carry a notebook, find time to write every day even if it is just a few minutes on the bus, even if it is a poem written on your phone. I write prose, too, and with stories, novels and essays, you can walk around with those ideas in your head, thinking them over, until you find time to write. They stay with you. But a poem comes—and disappears. So, you have to lay traps for poems, be open to them when they arrive.

Read the entire blog post, curated by Ruben Quesada as a series called “Poetry Today.”

Poems for the Ear

The Sept/Oct issue of the Kenyon Review featured a special poetry section, “All of This Is True,” guest-edited by Reginald Dwayne Betts. Virtually all of the poems—powerful pieces by fifteen poets—are available in audible form, read by their authors, on KR Out Loud. Treat yourself to a listen. Click here.

New Micro-Reviews from KROnline

KR marked National Translation Month in September by calling attention to recent translations of work by an exciting array of writers from around the world. Our most recent posting of micro-reviews features authors including:

• Choi Seungja, the revered South Korean feminist writer, whose poetry collection Phone Bells Keep Ringing for Me was translated by Won-Chun Kim and Cathy Park Hong.
• The Spanish poet Agustín Fernández Mallo, whose Pixel Flesh was translated by Zachary Rockwell Ludington.
• Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, the Moroccan Francophone writer, whose hybrid novel Agadir was translated by Pierre Joris and Jake Syersak.

Click here to read all of our recent micro-reviews of books in translation.

OCTOBER 2020
CONTENTS

Why We Chose It
Fellowships Search
Poetry Prize
Reading Series
On Books & Their Harbors
Writing Workshops
From the Blog
Kenyon Review Out Loud
Micro-Reviews

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