The Weekly Atticus (02/23/2019)

We Will Be Your Oasis of Calm at AWP19 | The Weekly Atticus

February 23, 2019

A recap of the week at Atticus Review, along with some extras.

If you follow such things, you know that the

— this year in Portland—is a little over a month away. And if this is your first conference, or even if it isn't, you may have started to feel a bit of excitement about going. You may have also begun to experience no small amount of anxiety, or dread. Random sweating. Heart palpitations. You may have noticed, this morning in fact, that you are breaking out like you haven't done since high school. Speaking of high school, it might be slowly dawning on you that you should probably try to acquire a pair of pants from the current decade. 

Don't worry. All of this is to be expected. It is part of the process. Don't fight it. Just let it wash over you. You are not alone. 

Atticus Review

will be there and we hope that knowing this will bring some small degree of comfort, that it will alleviate, not aggravate, any AWP anxiety you may have. And if you have no anxiety, well, good for you! Come by and alleviate ours. 

Our table on the bookfair floor is:

T9044.

Come find us, regardless of your emotional state or appearance. We want to be your Oasis of Calm, your Halcyon Home, your Benzodiazepine Base Station. Okay, we won't have drugs, but we'd still love to meet you and put names to faces. Or faces to names. While you're there, you can thumb through Volume Two of our Print Annual, which will still be warm from the printer! (More on that, including a cover reveal, next week!) You may also want to pick up a laptop sticker, or... have a psychic healing. 

A psychic healing? Well, yes, a partial healing. . . a fractional one, really. But every little bit helps. Regular

Atticus Review

contributor

will have her tarot cards and crystals out, and, most importantly, an assortment of consciousness-clearing books. The "book fairies" will choose for you, and It could be the book you always needed to find, or the book you already found in a previous life or an alternate timeline and now have found again. (Money-back guarantee!). 

It's okay if it's fuzzy right now. All of this will become clear once you're there. There is no right way to do AWP. In my experience (this will be my sixth), the best things to come out of AWP are the things you didn't plan at all. My recommendation is always the same: Go ahead and map out a schedule ahead of time. It's a good exercise, if nothing else. Find panels you want to see, people you want to meet, parties you want to go to. Then use the schedule as a frame of reference once you get there, but be ready to deviate from it whenever something else that feels more interesting comes along (and it will).

Except 

Table T9044

, of course. Don't deviate from that. 

Enjoy this week's pieces, below. Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here. David OlimpioPublisher & Editor-in-Chief 

ATTICUS NEWS

The deadline to enter the poetry contest has been extended to March 17th.Work on those poems all the way up to just before AWP.THEN SEND THEM OUR WAY

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: THE NINTH LINE OF AN ITALIAN SONNET IS A MOMENT OF FREEDOMA Review (and Interview) of ALL THAT HELD USby Henrietta Goodman from BkMk PressReview by Naomi Kimbell"The collection as a whole is Southern Gothic. It is uncomfortable and transgressive."READ ON

FICTION: CANCER ALLEYby Elise Blackwell"It looks like the river always has, like it did when we were children warned from its sinkholes and eddies—natural phenomena known to disappear entire pigs..."READ ON

POETRY: NIGHT SHIFTby Daniel Bourne"Your dog skitters over to the neighborswho will not give him back."READ ON

CNF: AS YOU TELL ITby Ashley Inguanta"The eye of the storm, you say, fingertips on the glass. It’s right there.I see the eye. It’s hollow, thin like a nail. I want to touch it, but I don’t. Instead, I keep my fingertips on the glass’ outer edge."READ ON

VIDEOPOEM: LES OS (BONES)by Alain Larose"...exploring the temporality of our personal lives and their territories...a man sits in a dark place... a school bus comes down the landscape in the back of his mind...a story about family, memory and loss."READ ON

FILM: A GUIDE TO THE OSCARS IN THE AGE OF LATE CAPITALISMIf you want the scoop on this Sunday's 91st Academy Awards go no further than this dissection from @BradAvery_ ..."If you believe an Academy Award holds any value or importance turn back now. Otherwise, here’s your guide to the eight films nominated for Best Picture."READ ON

SUPPORT ATTICUS!

We are funded entirely through voluntary contributions from writers and readers.