The Weekly Atticus

This Week at Atticus Review

May 28, 2022

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Intro by Christopher Linforth.

This week our thoughts are with those who died or were injured in the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. At times like these, many of us look for solace, understanding, and inspiration to enact meaningful change in literature. Matthew Vollmer's spellbinding nonfiction piece on the Virginia Tech shooting still resonates today, as do the novels How to be Safe by Tom McAllister, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, and Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down by Anne Valente. In other literary news, there's no small amount of serendipity--as the world burns around us--in Penguin Random House releasing a one-off fireproof copy of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

This week we're spotlighting more terrific work from our spring issue: the CNF piece "The Ghost Can Stay" by Kelly Q Anderson, the poem "Just Before Twilight" by Karen Mandell, and from the archives Anurag Andra's flash "Legacy." On the Attic, Charlie Klenk reviews Henry Hoke's Sticker and Swetha Amit interviews Venita Blackburn.

I'm currently taking a break from accepting pitches for the Attic as so many of you have submitted terrific ideas for articles. I will open up my inbox again in due course. So keep a lookout for an announcement in the newsletter.

Until next week, thanks so much for reading. Christopher LinforthEditor-in-Chief 

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

BOOK REVIEW

STICKER'S RESIDUEa book review BY Charlie Klenk"Sticker succeeds in its central metaphor, highlighting through mundane, everyday objects how commonplace this attack could be if the country continues on its current trajectory."

NEW FROM THE ATTIC

A CONVERSATION WITH VENITA BLACKBURNSwetha Amit interviews Venita Blackburn about her short story collection

and the art of the short story.

ISSUE ONE SPOTLIGHT

JUST BEFORE TWILIGHTbyKaren Mandell"A house is an organism, Susie said, elbows on knees.It needs shoring up in the lavender light.Like a child, it needs tucking in and soothingAnd a good scrubbing just when you want to read."

FROM THE ARCHIVES: September 2020

LEGACYbyAnurag Andra, whose novella

is available for preo-rder from Split/Lip Press."He took a deep breath, exhaled in a low rumble that reeked of raw meat. That’s all we’d fed to him in the weeks before."

ISSUE TWO THEME

For our August issue, we're interested in the ways the advent of the Internet Age has influenced literature, altered our sense of being and sense of belonging, made us rethink connection and connectivity, and changed our daily lives. We're open to work that interrogates and celebrates contemporary online culture, and work that considers the intersections of digital technologies in our on- and off-screen lives. Though this may sound formal, we're very open to creative work that broaches Internet culture and Internet-influenced life, in more tangential and interesting ways.

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Our Reading List is updated each week. Go check it out!Are you a contributor to Atticus Review who'd like your book featured in the reading list? Send us an email at [email protected]. 

**For photo credits, follow links to stories.**