The Weekly Atticus (07/21/2018)

Make Sense of the Story | The Weekly Atticus

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

Dear ,

What is the opposite of writer’s block? I’m talking about when you find yourself in that unbridled and limitless place where the words keep flowing. Every new sentence opens a door to a new plot thread. Every character you create leads to a half-dozen others. On a first draft, these would be standard operating procedure — the thrill of its discovery. But like any great “discoverer,” there’s finding the story, and then making sense of it. I’ve been feeling that a bit lately as I’ve been trying to revise a long-gestating manuscript this summer. It’s a work I put down for several years and am now returning to, but every page feels like it needs its own novel behind it. I’ve changed as a writer, so while I know my characters, I can’t quite decide where I want them to go. The possibilities seem infinite, and more and more, any discernible ending to the work feels elusive. This week, I came upon an arresting image in Federico Garcia Lorca’s Divan del Tamarit:          Me separa de los muertos          Un muro de malos sueños          I am separated from the dead          By a wall of bad dreams.          —“Gacela del recuerdo de amor”, or Ghazal of the Memory of LoveIn the poem, a speaker mourns a loved one, clinging to their memory while time passes on. However, with creative intentions on my mind, it captured to me how it feels to be a writer—how we strive to make a wall of our dreams, our obsessions, our unresolved troubles, so that we might make a lasting testament to our imaginations, to keep us separated from the idea of death or being forgotten. But lest I waddle too deep into my death metal concept album, let’s reverse it:          A wall of dreams          Reunites me with lifeA rough construction certainly, and while I wouldn’t dare attempt a reverse translation out of respect for Señor Garcia Lorca, thinking of it this way was helpful to me. This more positive spin doesn’t have the same finality to it. In that sense, neither does my writing. But, even if my “process” feels halted, it does give me a chance to take stock of that “wall,” and live out those characters’ lives, whether or not it ends up in the final draft.Of course, there needs to be a “finished” at some point, but there needn’t necessarily be any ticking clocks or any prescribed directions to where the writing needs to go, as long as it does. The exploration — though sometimes aimless — brings me back to why I started writing it in the first place. In my case, the revision I saw as the goal itself — isn’t the important thing. Instead it's just to have a goal, as elusive as it may sometimes be, because the walls breached along the way offer the chance to rekindle the love of the work. Thanks for reading. We’re glad you’re here.Aditya DesaiBook Reviews Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

ANNOUNCING THE ATTICUS REVIEW 2018 FLASH CNF CONTEST WINNERS!We're excited to announce the Atticus Review 2018 Flash Creative Nonfiction Contest winners. Congratulations to Miah Jeffra (First Prize), Krys Malcolm Belc (Second Prize), Grace Campbell (Third Prize), and Jennifer Todhunter (Honorable Mention).We will be publishing the winning entries beginning next week! READ ON

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: BEYOND THE GRIDA Review of AGNES MARTIN: PIONEER, PAINTER, ICON by Henry MartinReview by Torin Jensen"What emerges is a sensitive portrait of a woman largely at odds with contemporary attitudes towards artists, non-binary sexual orientations, and those struggling with mental illness."READ ON

FICTION: CAT IN THE RAINby Rosemary Harp"She glanced back at me—fearful but defiant—then squared her little shoulders and walked the perimeter of the small pool to the chair where the cat sheltered."READ ON

POETRY: UPROOTEDby Tom Holmes"Mother, father, this is what it’s like every daywhen I know you’re close to dyingand I’ve not touched your faces sinceI was born..."READ ON

CNF: SUICIDE ROOMby Patricia Colleen Murphy"For the 42 year lifespan of this room, there was the same Federal blue textured carpet on the floor, Carolina blue paint on the walls, and two Steel blue Thai batiks above the dresser."READ ON

MIXED MEDIA: ONE STEP AWAYA videopoem by Caroline Rumley"...when I woke up one morning with a positive dream still present in my head, one dealing with the importance of trust and encouraging words, I couldn’t help but use it for my next videopoem..." - Caroline RumleyREAD ON

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