The Weekly Atticus (09/30/2017)

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

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Dear ,I was living and teaching in Indiana when my colleague, Cathy Day, first introduced me to a term I hadn’t heard before: literary citizenship. Basically, it’s the idea that writing, reading, and publishing aren’t quite enough. As tough and time-consuming as those things can be, we also have to try and actively engage the writing community, to be cheerleaders as well as critics. The idea may seem obvious, but before Cathy, I’d never actually considered being a writer as being analogous to gaining and maintaining citizenship in a country (and what a strange, beautiful, savage country it is). Sure, I had terrific professors in grad school who emphasized the importance not just of craft and persistence but also of networking and good manners—especially in such a competitive and often lonely profession as writing. But it hadn’t really sunk in yet, just how much one could do to support and encourage their fellow artists (often without needing to spend a dime), and in so doing, how much we can enrich ourselves. We all know the isolation and bitterness that often go hand-in-hand with hours spent refining skills that aren’t necessarily highly prized, especially in America. That being said, the cure to this (or at the very least, the aspirin that temporarily dissolves the migraine) is astonishingly simple. These days, for me, literary citizenship comes not just in the form of being a Poetry Editor for Atticus Review, but spending time on Facebook and Twitter, liking and sharing the successes of fellow writers. It also means writing reviews from time to time, whether it’s a formal review that I send off to a journal or just a few sentences posted on Amazon. I also have a personal rule: if I read a piece in a journal that I like, I try to contact the writer with a few lines, letting them know I enjoyed it. I’ve been lucky to receive a few messages like that over the years, so I know how reinvigorating and sustaining just a few appreciative words can be. The same goes for reposting work that opens our skulls, that unveils the hidden un-killable beauty flowing just beneath rivers of quiet desperation. We all tend to feel like we’re stifled voices lost in the electronic wilderness. Paradoxically, though, there are more of us reading and writing than ever before. So yes, it’s more important than ever that we refine our own voices, that we break new ground, that we stand out. At the same time, though, as much as the literary world is about writing and talking, it’s also about reading and listening. It’s about sharing and celebrating the work that drives and inspires us to do better, to be better.So with that in mind, here’s a whole issue of stuff worth sharing.Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here.

Michael Meyerhofer Poetry Editor

ATTICUS NEWS

ANNOUNCING OUR FIRST ANNUAL FLASH FICTION CONTESTJudge: Carmen Maria MachadoSUBMIT HERE!First Prize: $250Second Prize: $75Third Prize: $25Deadline: October 22nd, 2017Winner Announced: November 27th, 2017

Updates from Atticus Author Alumni including Roy Bentley, Timothy Brearton, Amalia Gladhart, Melissa Goode, John Gredler, Zack O’Neill, Lana Spendl.

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

Mickey

BOOK REVIEW: What We Talk About When We Talk About DeathA Review of DYING by Cory TaylorReview by Aditya Desai"For Taylor, lives are defined by the tension between how people wished to live, and how they actually did. Much of the memoir triangulates this idea through three people—her grandmother, her mother, and father, all consumed by late-life melancholia brought on by feeling trapped and kept from a greater bohemian life by family bonds."READ MORE

FICTION: THE UMRICANSby Aruni Kashyap "A month before you move to America, your aunt is admitted to a small hospital in your small northeast Indian city for an eye operation. That year, your mother buys a new Hyundai i10 car. She hires a driver who doesn’t like to be introduced as the “Driver of the Car,” but prefers to go by “The Pilot of the Car.” He thinks the word “driver” is ignominious and the word “pilot” designatory. He drives both of you to the hospital."READ MORE

POETRY: STALEMATEby Stephen Cramer"The last two Buddhas on earthsmile at each other, each vowingnot to enter nirvanauntil they’ve resolvedevery last stitch of suffering"READ MORE

NONFICTION: MUSIC AND SOLACEby Nathan Leslie"For me comfort often comes in aural form. Music often articulates emotions or a particular mood that words somehow cannot. The songs that make me feel better are often deep-seated, taking me back to a simpler time. Nostalgia is often, as a friend pointed out to me recently, fallacious. However, a beloved song doesn’t feel or sound fallacious. Music and memory are often entwined."READ MORE