Weave Us Into Your World (Lesley Intro) (06/22/2019)

This letter is a recap of the week at

Atticus Review

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When I first logged into the Atticus Review submission manager, I felt nervous. Every lit mag has its own aesthetic, important to its writers and readers. It has its own world view, even if it’s changing. What if I failed to understand something important about what Atticus Review was doing? What if my (very) preliminary recommendations failed a writer or a reader somewhere?But within seconds of looking at the CNF queue, I felt comfortable again. The first piece whose title grabbed me (it had already been accepted by nonfiction editor Chauna Craig) was written by an author whose work I knew. "A Bottle of Dirt" by Seta Kabranian-Melkonian, published a few weeks ago, was a haunting love song to a long-lost childhood home. Why did I feel comfortable right away after falling upon this piece? Was it, as I first thought, my previous contact with the author years earlier? On reflection, I think it was much more the reading experience itself and the internal consistency of “A Bottle of Dirt,” its sticking to its own terms — visual, idea-based, and emotional. The writer asks me to consider things I’ve never known: a road from Lebanon to Syria; an outhouse with a brass bowl for bathing a child above a covered hole; displacement; losing parents. And I did — because of the beautiful bones of this small memoir’s world. Of course, beauty can come from lots of different writerly strategies including radically unconventional ones, as long as they are used consistently and with the reader in mind. Other gifts that a writer can provide that I love are humor, a really good digression, and one or two irresistible new facts. But having read for literary magazines since I was a college sophomore, I now know that what helps me recognize that a piece is resonant and right is: an engaging central spirit and the author’s dedication to that spirit, an internal coherence that builds my enjoyment and admiration. With this kind of piece I feel that as a simple reader I am attended to throughout. I experience something amazing — that I am wholeheartedly invited into another world. I invite you to send us that kind of piece for our CNF Contest!Thanks for reading. We’re glad you’re here.Lesley HeiserAssistant CNF Editor

ATTICUS NEWS

What are you waiting for?Send us your best for the 2nd Annual CNF contest...Deadline is July 21st. First prize is $400!Judge: Ira Sukrungruang.

Meet our new Interviews Editor, Meher Manda!"When I read a book, I’m obsessed with the use of ‘I,’ the narrative voice. So I’m always interested in the narrative choices being made. And also structure. I study structure, arrangement, deeply."READ ON

ATTICUS AUTHOR NEWS!Congratulations Lori Sambol Brody, Mark Budman, Sarah Carey,Toshiya Kamei, Kristen Ploetz, and Nathan Willis.READ OUR JUNE AUTHOR NEWS

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

Take some time today to absorb and observeanother Feral Town by Adam Gustavson...BRIT

BOOK REVIEWSNAPSHOTS OF SUBURBIAA Review of FLOYD HARBOR by Joel Mowdyfrom Catapult Books (Amazon)Review by AnnaLee Barclay "It is impossible to read these stories without feeling heartache for the universal pain of the human condition that exists within all of us..."READ ON

FICTIONRESERVOIRby Cate McGowan"Sometimes we climb into the cracked shell of our drained swimming pool. Inside its leaf-filled cavity where waterlogged piles are half-slimy, half-frozen, we pretend we’re superheroes of the ocean."READ ON

POETRYAN ORDINARY LIFEby Sarah Carey"Not uprooted, not hunger-drawn,never transplanted from my homeland,I thrive within my native confines..."READ ON

POETRYVOYEURSby Jeanne Wagner"His feathers fingering the air—catching that extra bit of sunmaking its waythrough each barb and barbule, through rachis and shaft—savoring the heat we’re all made from."READ ON

NONFICTIONBARLEY THE COLOR OF A WILD HORSEby L Mari Harris"I cannot sleep the nights my mother stays with me, my body a heavy stone, my brain an animal racing across a goatgrass field, rearing each time the house settles..."READ ON

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