Where Do You Find Progress? (Aditya Intro) (12/21/2019)

Where Do You Find Progress? | The Weekly Atticus

December 21, 2019

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Aditya Desai

At the end of each semester, I ask my students to reflect on the work they produced in the previous fifteen weeks. Most of the responses are play-by-play commentary not unlike something you’d find on ESPN: covering the moves, the pivots, the scores, and the misses they made throughout the semester.

There is inevitably some self-deprecation or figurative prostrating mixed-in, a last ditch attempt for mercy. Well, I tried, they seem to say, and I must always push back: the attempt is the act! It never feels productive to have your writing measured within a writing class. Your success will come when you make the writing work for you to get bigger things done.

As I type this, posts abound online from writers sharing the work they’ve produced this year. Lists unfold across our favorite literary sites about the books that were most talked about, or should have been talked about more.

For myself, there were highs. I published another short story (and had several rejected). I published another review. But there were also some disappointments: even though I had a productive month at a writing residency getting a draft of my novel into shape, I summarily spent the rest of the year realizing it needed more work.

In the moments where I feel disappointed by my efforts, I say to myself it’s not because I didn’t try, but life gets in the way sometimes. I can imagine as we get to the end of the year, these thoughts start creeping up for a lot of us, looking back on those goals from January, and seeing how far we got. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t progress.

I also found some progress outside of my work:  I joined the board of literary non-profit. I held a reading to fundraise for detainees at the border. I sent out work that had been rejected to friends for feedback and in turn I got to play a small part in having their killer work find a home.

Yes, we all want to get that piece published, but when our writing is not making it on its own terms, how can we keep the momentum going in other ways? Maybe we can create those spaces and chances for others, whether it is reviewing, or hosting readings, or keeping tabs on how that buddy’s piece is faring.

As we roll into 2020, we’ll be back at it again, with a new goals and aspirations.

This year, I will write ____!

And best wishes that you do! But remember that in the process, your writing will be opening other lanes you didn’t expect. Progress happens in multitudes, sometimes not even within yourself. But it all counts. It’s all part of the work.

Thanks for reading. We’re glad you’re here.

 

Aditya Desai

Book Reviews Editor

PS: We're going on a break for the holidays. See you in 2020!

ATTICUS NEWS

Submit to our Second Annual Videopoem ContestJudge: Marc Neys (aka Swoon)Entry fee: $10 for three films. First prize $250 and publication(Not to mention international acclaim and adoration)

Congratulations to these Atticus Review Authors for their recent good news!Marion Agnew, Kristen M. Ploetz, and George Salis, and Lana Spendl. 

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

BOOK REVIEWIMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLEA review of ...AND OTHER DISASTERS by Malka Older Review by AnnaLee Barclay"...simultaneously creative and probing, looking past the robot/AI uprising or mass ecological destruction ... Older explores the ever-mutating relationship between humanity and technology."GET THE BOOKREAD THE REVIEW

FICTIONFINGEREDby Kate Felix *2nd Prize in the 2019 Flash Fiction Contest"Fidel doesn’t know the fraying curtains of his bedroom window have been insufficient to conceal his secrets. That tears, although silent, can disturb the ears of sisters who know how to listen."READ ON

FICTIONWE CAN LEARN FROM THE SAWHORSEby Jen Fawkes *3rd Prize in the 2019 Flash Fiction Contest"Get down, he growled, but she wouldn’t. She clung to Stan’s wooden spine, limbs wrapped tight, shielding him."READ ON

POETRYFOR BODIES GONE MISSINGby Sneha Subramanian Kanta"We draw an aerial map of the territory surrounding / the river. Ghosts glide over elderberry // plants while a body is turned over the back."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONFOUR EYESby Cecilia Gigliotti "I attribute my earliest memory of Randy Newman–a hodgepodge of Pixar soundtracks, chief among them Toy Story–to the fact that I am a child of the nineties."READ ON

MIXED MEDIASELF PORTRAIT WITH REPURPOSED IMAGEby Alexa Lemoine"The prolonged stare of the artist engages the viewer while the poetry addresses histories of erasure across artistic disciplines. Here, the feminine reigns in the form of stereotypical imagery: cupcakes, pomegranates, a soft backdrop. The artist's lilting voice is an abrasive invitation to examine how often the overtly feminine is left absent on the canvas, on the screen, and on the page."READ ON

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