Savor the Sweet (Chauna Intro) (08/01/2020)

Savor the Sweet | The Weekly Atticus

August 01, 2020

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Chauna Craig.

Saeed Jones in his memoir

How We Fight for Our Lives

recalls the story of his grandmother on her birthday having just cut into a slice of coconut cake when the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination broke and her neighbor screamed. She “set down her plate, the piece of cake untouched,” and Jones reflects on “The sweetness we deny ourselves because the world is wailing.”

I love that line. I suspect many of us identify with it these days.

And yet to deny sweetness is to deny life, and when we can’t easily find joy and beauty in our lives, we often turn to art to remember it. In Emily St. John Mandel’s post-apocalyptic novel,

Station Eleven

, a troupe of Shakespearean actors and musicians travel from one splintered community to the next, their wagon painted with the phrase: “Survival is insufficient.” Even as the group bickers and disagrees and struggles for supplies in a dangerous world, they acknowledge that what makes this life bearable are the transcendent moments of beauty and joy. The sweetness.

Even Shakespeare, who survived childhood when many of his siblings didn’t, who lost his own eleven-year-old son, who lived through plague outbreaks that shut down theaters and snuffed out the lives of his friends and family, kept writing and producing plays that lift me out of myself and make me weep with gratitude for the enduring gift of them.

This is a short (but sweet!) newsletter introduction because I’m taking a vacation and

Atticus Review

is taking a break so we can all return in September renewed and ready to keep bringing you essays and stories and poems that will make your heart hitch in your chest, your eyes light up with recognition, your lips turn up in a smile. The world is wailing. And the blackberries are bursting with ripeness. The world is wailing. And there are books on the shelf waiting to be opened so their gorgeous lines can fill your empty spots, coconut cakes begging your tongue to take a taste.  You don’t have to set down your plate.

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

Chauna Craig

Creative Nonfiction Editor

**Editorial Note: We will be on publishing hiatus until September. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Stay safe. Wear a mask. 

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS REVIEW

FICTIONWORSHIPby Gary Fincke"As everyone at your Zoom meeting begins the odd goodbyes of isolation, Denise says, 'Would you like to see our butterfly collection?'"READ ON

POETRYHOME IS WHERE THE HOLMDEL HORN ANTENNA ISby Katie DePasquale"Watch your last sand grain disappearas our toes reach for the hourglass."READ ON

POETRYGOOD FRIDAYby Brendan Sherry"...We had booksBy Zane Gray and Rudyard Kipling that had been damaged by the humidity.We put them on the fire. Gary said It's Armageddon. The priest said Kids don't knowWhat Armageddon is..."READ ON

POETRYOREOSby Tyrel Kessinger"My friend calls and worries. That maybe Oreos are coming to an end. That maybe constant luxury will be a thing of the past."READ ON

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