Literary Antidote to the Holidays (Lesley Intro) (11/30/2019)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Lesley Heiser.

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I was a very strong book reader when I was in my teens and twenties. As a bibliophile, I confidently swept up voluminous literary antidotes to carry with me as talismans and means of retreat. The books diffused tension or channeled emotion or filled vacant spaces in my heart and head. 

So I read

The Golden Bowl

in a tiny room in New Delhi where I was staying with a friend and forgot my disorientation. 

I delved into the poems of Wallace Stevens in remote Thailand and forgot the strangeness and ineptness of the family member with whom I was staying—and of myself.

I lost myself in the poems of Sylvia Plath for all kinds of reasons, including feeling very happy (too happy?). They were a kind of touchstone and I sense they always will be. 

Now, though, I have to admit that I’m not quite as strong a book reader. I have so much going on in my life and head that it’s harder to sense who it is that I am in any given moment and what literary antidotes might provide the needed haven in which to explore or rest. 

I do read by listening to books while driving or cooking or doing yoga, but often I will stop and wonder if I am reading the right book when I hear even a snippet about an end-of-year “best of” literary list; or, I will set down a work I am thoroughly enjoying to deal Tarot cards or turn on my phone. And it’s all so natural at this point that I don’t even know how to question it. 

But I still need my literary antidotes—to this Thanksgiving weekend, for example. And I’m confident that I can fully escape during this holiday for a good long while, if not for all of it, no matter how much fun I am having or not having, into a small array of online and print literary journals. I’ve grown to find that my favorite literary journals (or online writerly domains) are as effective for escape as a great book.

I hope you have an antidote to carry you through your fall days. And I hope that the alchemy the act of reading produces liberates you and calls you to new and happy discoveries.  

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

Lesley Heiser

Assistant Creative Nonfiction Editor

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THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

BOOK REVIEWCHAPBOOK HIGHLIGHTSReviews of BOYS, by Daniel Edward Moore and POEMS FOR CRONES, by Roxy RunyanGET BOYSGET POEMS FOR CRONESREAD THE REVIEWS

FICTIONHAPPY MEALby Jeremy T. Wilson"Be on the lookout for just the right metaphor. She never tells them why, but she knows why. Because it’s important to see things for what they are but also for what else they might be."READ ON

POETRYSELF-PORTRAIT FROM THE PAST|UREby Sarah Cavar"An- imals / will take their pick of me and I will be grateful. / Clouds in the face of my river. Corn in my sky. I am..."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONSPILLOVERby Catherine Klatzker"Scientists usually talk about viruses when they speak of crossed species, or spillover, and the biological effects on humans. I think about the spillover itself."READ ON

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