Take a Look at Your Future Reader (Jen Intro) (11/23/2019)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Jen Maidenberg. Info about our Videopoetry Contest!

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At the local public library book sale held a few times a year, there is always a small table with a folded tent sign that reads “Antiquarian.” It’s a funny old-timey word well-suited to old-timey books. 

I never know what I’m looking for when I scan the antiquarian books for sale, but inevitably I walk away with something. One time, it was a self-help book from 1932. Last time, it was a pile of

Life

magazines from the 1960s and 70s. At this month’s sale, I spotted a “pictorial pageant in 655 pictures of 100 years in Philadelphia.” 

What made this find even more irresistible to me was that the 100 years on display weren’t the last 100, but those between 1847 and 1947. The special edition magazine was a sort of “then and now” issued by the now-defunct

Evening Bulletin

newspaper. Except, because of its 1947 publication date, it was more of a “then and then and now.”

I bought the magazine mostly for the photographs, for as much as I love old books, I also love old buildings. I get a kick out of walking around Philly trying to figure out what a particular building was before it was an Apple store. 

It turns out, though, that the captions were as delightful as the photographs, and I found myself both amused and sometimes touched by how the writers, in their attempts to creatively transport the reader back in time to 1847, ended up transporting this one reader back to 1947 instead with lines like “news photographers back then had not yet coined the term ‘cheesecake’ to describe feminine beauty, and it’s just as well!”

As writers, it’s one of our tasks to pay attention to voice, whether it’s that of our narrator or those of our fictional characters. And while I’ve certainly had the experience of reading something I wrote once and cringing at the voice I used then, I haven’t given much thought to what it might be like for someone to read my narrator’s voice in the more distant future. To do so now, to imagine someone picking up a work of mine in the antiquarian section of the public library book sale, makes me laugh a little, especially when I think of some of the more colorful language I’ve used.

I don’t know about you, but I can get stuck sometimes taking my writing way too seriously; especially when I’m working on a piece containing sensitive subject matter or one I’ve been trying for so very long to write without success. In fact, come to think of it, I cringe much less at my old writing voice when it’s trying to be playful rather than serious. Perhaps, my playful voice changes less with time, and therefore remains ... recognizable.

If you’re stuck taking your writing self a little too seriously today, I invite you to imagine your future reader browsing the antiquarian books section and coming upon your yet-to-be completed work. For one, imagining a future in which your book has been published can’t hurt. And two, thinking about how different the world and people will be then may help you see your writing, and your present writer self, in a slightly lighter light.

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

Jen Maidenberg

Columns Editor

ATTICUS NEWS

Atticus Review is happy to announce ourSecond 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)

SUBMIT

Atticus Review is happy to announce our 2019 Pushcart Prize Nominees. Congratulations to Josh Myers, Connie Post, Dorian Fox, Donna Miscolta, Brett Armes, Siamak Vossoughi. Best of luck to these fine writers! 

READ ON

Congratulations to Atticus Review's Best Microfiction nominees! Elise Blackwell, Frankie McMillan, Adam McOmber, Curtis Smith.READ ON

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

BOOK REVIEWLANGUAGE THAT SWEEPS LIKE WAVESA Review of EIGHTBALL by Elizabeth GeogheganReview by Bailey Drumm"Geoghegan is a master of illustrating the larger picture, without letting the small details fall by the wayside."GET THE BOOKREAD THE REVIEW

FICTIONTHE FLY, THE SPIDER, THE BIRD, THE CAT, THE DOG, THE HOG, THE GOAT, THE COW, THE HORSE, THE BEAR, THE ELEPHANT, THE WHALEby Christopher James"You see, said Millie, lil’ Mil, trying to learn more will kill you stone cold dead."READ ON

POETRYNOTHING IS EASIER THAN REMEMBERING SOMEONE YOU WANT TO FORGETby Patrick Meeds"These are some things I didwhen I was in love.I drove long distances. I worriedabout my eyebrows. I ate foodI did not like. I listened..."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONALIBI BAR, 1968by Linda BuckmasterFrom our “Superunknown: Stories About Songs” series"But one guy, Tinch, straightens himself up a bit to shake my hand and slur into the sudden silence, 'Your dad talks about you all the time.'”READ ON

MIXED MEDIACOSMIC MEMORY 1by Peter Johnston (film) and Cindy Hunter Morgan (poetry)"...a meditation on loss and the unexpected ways that memories bridge time and space."READ ON

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