The Weekly Atticus (12/02/2017)

All We Ever See is the Facade | The Weekly Atticus

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

Dear ,

Years ago, I had this part-time job at a book store in a mall outside of Baltimore. I realized quickly that I hated retail and everyone bought boring books, so I didn’t last long. But what I loved was wandering the back parts of the mall, the enormous, cavernous tunnels feeding the stores. It was kind of incredible. I had no idea any of that was there until I walked around in it. All I had seen until then were the facades. All most of us think about is the facade. As writers, we typically only see the front-side of a journal or press and we don’t think about how it works. We send our pieces out into the void and often there’s no feedback with the rejection, no explanation of process, nothing beyond form emails after months have passed. And we think: why aren’t they accepting this? Why am I getting form rejections? WHY DON’T THEY LOVE ME?When I was starting out, I took all the rejections personally, thought that I didn’t have what it took. And I might have eventually quit, despite the occasional acceptance, except for serendipity and a “what the fuck” moment. While I was scoping out places to submit, I happened to see a temporary slush reader position open at Asimov's Science Fiction, a top-rate genre journal. For whatever reason, I sent an application and, to my surprise, they accepted. For a month or two, I was a part of the program. Let me tell you, it was enlightening. I saw how many submissions were coming in and I then understood why responses can take so damned long. I saw the competition I was up against. And finally, I grocked the reasons so many pieces were rejected. Note that I’m not explaining it. I could, but other editors have explained it and chances are you’ve heard it. But if you’re anything like me, you’re the kind of person who needs to touch the fire before internalizing that it’s hot. I only understood because I checked out how it worked. Not coincidentally, the piece of advice I give most often is: offer to slush read or apply for an editing position. Find a journal and offer your services. You don’t have to do it long; editing doesn’t have to become your thing. But being involved, even temporarily, gives such valuable insight to how it all works. Get behind the curtain, feel the slippery, warm guts (ew), let what you read inform your own writing. You’ll come out stronger and wiser and more ready for the grind that is being a writer.

Michael B. TagerBook Reviews Editor

ATTICUS NEWS

We’re very pleased to announce the 2017 Atticus Review Flash Fiction Contest winners! Thank you to all the writers who entered and to Carmen Maria Machado, author of HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES: STORIES, for selecting the contest winners.We will be publishing the winning pieces over the next three Tuesdays. Links to the pieces by the four runners-up were published this week and are included below.READ MORE

Here are our 2017 Pushcart Prize Nominees! It was difficult to nominate only six. Thank you to all Atticus Review contributors for your great work.READ MORE

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: Identity is not a GenreA Review of Lez Talk: A Collection of Black Lesbian Short FictionReview by Aditya Desai"The reader’s reward in Lez Talk is a breadth of narratives that bucks any monolithic identity politic, and creates in its pages a tangible community of voices that shows these stories were always around, that Black lesbian literature need not be a genre onto itself, but rather a wrinkle that settles well into any reading list, offering something both distinct and familiar."READ REVIEW

FICTION: HEROES OF THE FIRST CITIESby Catherine Carberry A 2017 Flash Fiction Contest Runner-up"Bruce was known as the Kilted Hero and was currently standing by the stereo, presenting Gina with two feline trophies he had stuffed after vanquishing. The Nude Bearded Hero shrugged but I saw the little quiver of testosterone, a slight tightening in his shoulders."READ MORE

FICTION: GOD SAVE OUR QUEENby Claire GuytonA 2017 Flash Fiction Contest Runner-up"Nurse understands that Anne worries a secret, but she has no idea what it is. It shows in the way she hovers before a door, clenching her fists and taking a deep breath before she enters a room."READ MORE

FICTION: IDAby Elisabeth Ingram WallaceA 2017 Flash Fiction contest runner-up"Some say she resembles a giant, a craggy black nightmare. A child’s drawing of a monster; a prehistoric dinosaur, sleeping under a snow crown of ice."READ MORE

FICTION: TRILLINGby Alyssa Proujansky A 2017 Flash Fiction Contest Runner-up"At first, I thought she was asleep. I talked and talked. I watched her closed eyes, the rise and fall of her chest, her steady breaths in and out. But then she thrashed her legs. She punched the bed. She turned away so she was facing the wall."READ MORE

POETRY:THEY THREW ME OFF THE HAY TRUCK ABOUT NOONby Roy Bentley"...Our breath was the dust of Oregon fieldsand the light, which was a whole other story. I must havebeen a sight that day he understood how important it can beto work really hard and laugh out loud for as long as you can."READ MORE

CNF: CALL MY NAMEby Christopher Locke"For once, I was like the kids I saw on TV, the ones who were so loved they didn’t need to hear it repeated over and over to them like an apology."READ MORE

THE REASON FOR SLEEPby Erica GossA video-poem by Erica Goss that will give you the wet eyes.READ MORE

FILM: Alias Grace and the Fascination with Women’s Painby Alison Lanier"Alias Grace is a story about a woman crushed to the bottom of the social pile by the fact of her femaleness, whose abuses are often the abuses shoveled on women who don’t have a voice to report those attacks."READ MORE