The Weekly Atticus (11/24/2018)

This is the Only Tradition You Need to Keep | The Weekly Atticus

November 24, 2018

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

Dear ,

I’m writing this less than 48 hours before Thanksgiving as I make a very last-minute shopping list. The original plan was to go out for Thanksgiving dinner. Growing up, Thanksgiving was always just a day off from school. If you come from a large Italian-American family, big dinners attended by a large number of screaming relatives isn’t a holiday. It’s Sunday.This year, with friends and family scattered around the country and abroad, booking a restaurant table seemed the easiest option. But as Thanksgiving inched closer, I felt the urge to make a home-cooked meal instead. I canceled the booking and now look forward to a trip to the grocery store not unlike Thunderdome.I’m by no means a traditionalist, but the older I get, the more I find comfort in the little traditions my family has created. We will set out the pine cone Kindergarten turkey craft as our centerpiece, as we do every year. Soon, we will set up our sparse Charlie Brown Xmas tree and open presents while eating Panettone. These are traditions we’ve established rather than those passed down.This kind of tradition-making has me thinking about traditions within our writing communities. Reading series, open mic nights, writing groups—these traditions are typically created by people who volunteer their time because they love literature. When we support our communities we become part of those comforting spaces. I urge writers to seek out those gatherings, to enrich their writing lives and the lives of other writers through participation, in whatever form that may be. Perhaps that means starting a new tradition.I’m thankful for the people working to make those traditions real. Before I head off to battle other frazzled shoppers for the last butternut squash, and at the risk of getting a bit saccharine-y, I also want to say I’m thankful for our team of volunteers at Atticus Review, the writers who trust us with their work, and the readers who visit our little corner of the internet every day. We’re glad you’re here.Dorothy BendelManaging Editor

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THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: UNRELIABLE DEFINITIONSA Review of DEFINITION by Graham GuestReview by Christopher Lura"At 130 pages, it is a short book. It maintains a powerful conceptual edge throughout that successfully underpins its experimental project. Although the book’s primary audience is inevitably going to be the dictionary dreamers, outsider academics, hobo lexicographers, and steampunk language philosophers, the book also poses reasonable questions for more mainstream users of 'definitions' as well: after all, if a dictionary is not definitive, what is it? Approximate?"READ ON

FICTION: NO ONE'S BOYFRIENDby Leonora Desar"Johnny would say one thing and I would nod and say ­yes. That’s how it is with boys who are no one’s boyfriend."READ ON

POETRY: SONG-CHANGERby Mark Russell"I met a guyin the Villagehe asked how longwas I stayingin the dreamwe knowas New York City"READ ON

CNF: LASSIEby Rita Ciresi"Tonight the TV will take you to Mayberry R.F.D. and Green Acres. The train will stop for half an hour at Petticoat Junction. You’ll join McHale’s Navy and be one of Hogan’s Heroes."READ ON

FILM REVIEW: A BLOCKBUSTER HEIST WITH ART HOUSE BONESA review of WIDOWS from director Steve McQueenReview by Emily Moeck"... a tightly-zipped thriller that is bursting at the seams with complex characters and sociopolitical commentary."READ ON

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