R C a Lumni Journal 4

RC Alumni Journal 4 4 Journal Alumni RC RC Fall 2020 • No. 4 No. • 2020 Fall Alumni Journal 4 No. 4 • Fall 2020 Welcome! Welcome to the fourth issue of the difficult), I might . suggest he RC Alumni Journal! limit self-loathing, and expect to work hard for the things he loves This issue celebrates the 50th (rather than look for an easy short- anniversary of RC creative writing cut). (the program officially began in Fall 1970). We planned to be part of Of course, these and other reveries a greater celebration, but Mother came to an abrupt halt in March Nature had other ideas. 2020, when the RC, the universi- ty, the city, and the state began As usual, we feature work by RC closing down. alums, many of whom were creative writing majors. This issue, we again feature a brief interview with RC alum and cre- Fall 2019 marked my own 50th RC ative writing program head Laura anniversary. Late in August1969, my Thomas. There is a bit of program parents dropped me off at the arch news, and a brief history of RC on Willard Street; it’s possible I had creative writing, too. to interrupt their latest argument to get my small suitcase and portable “Alumni News,” which gathered typewriter out of the trunk of the some publishing info on RC grads, car. has been moved to the RC Writers site, which we promise to update About once a week, in Fall 2019 and regularly. That site (sites.lsa.umich. Winter 2020, I’d walk to the Quad edu/rcwriters) contains PDFs of all from my west-side home and sit in our issues as well as many other the Madrigal Lounge, musing about things. that younger version of myself, all those years ago. If I could go go back in time, if I could get that youngster’s attention (I’m not sure which of the two would be more Contact me at [email protected] To financially support the journal: go to leadersandbest.umich.edu/find/#!/scu/lsa, click on “Write In Your Gift,” then put in “331802, RC Alumni Journal” and whatever amount you wish to contribute. Table of Contents Or send a check to Carl Abrego or Robby Griswold at the college. To support the Emerging Writer award, Its “giving” number is 323069. There’s more about Emerging Writers on p. 148. Laura Hulthen Thomas, Women Returned 1 Camilla Lizundia, Two Poems 12 Julia Byers, I Don’t Miss You Image Credits (by page number): 13 Melissa Durante, Three Poems Page 1: Image by Tero Vesalainen from Shutterstock 18 Cameron Finch, Space Exploration Page 13: Image by Raul Chavelas from Pixabay (background added) 20 Hannah Nathans, Three Collages Page 20: Photo by Dan 24 Peter Anderson, Evicted Page 27: Image by Masterlevsha from Shutterstock 27 Barry Garelick, An Equal-Time Critique of Education Page 30: Image from “Someday Soon” by Paul Hanna and 30 in the Mid-1950’s Genevieve Anderson Hoyt, 1948. Rebecca Growe and Julia Martin Burch, A Kid’s Guide Page 35: Image by MotOo from Pixabay 35 to Coronavirus Page 43: Image by Beate Felten-Leidel from Pixabay Logan Corey, Three Poems Page 48: Image by Marissa from Pixabay 40 Peter Anderson, The Disappearance Page 54: Image by jacqueline macou from Pixabay 45 Delaney Leach, Pumpkin Carving Time Page 63: image by Star Flames from Pixabay 46 Allison Epstein, Villa Giudice Page 74: Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay 50 J.L. Hagen, Dindace’s Stand Page 85: Image by Alfanso Cerezo from Pixabay 54 Carmen Bugan, Three Poems Page 89: Image by Tara Patta from Shutterstock 59 Ellen Dreyer, Heartland (Chapters 3 and 4) Page 114: Image by Kristina Rogers 63 Kathryn Orwig, BeTwIxT Page 118: Photos by John Laswick 74 Esha Biswas, Four Poems Page 126: Photo by Mary Gallagher 81 Robin Lily Goldberg, Skipping Side Effects Page 129: Photo by Joseph Stanhope Cialdella 85 Dennis Foon, The Dead Line Page 134: Image by George Rudy from Shutterstock 89 Bob Clifford, Ten Poems Page 137: Image by Prawney from Pixabay 105 Hannah Brauer, Love, Grandpa Holland 114 John Laswick, DC Postcards Headshots of RC faculty taken from the web. 118 Mary Gallagher, A.D. Laura Thomas photos courtesy Laura. 126 Joseph Stanhope Cialdella, Detroit’s Green Roots: Photos in Endnotes courtesy John Laswick. 129 Three Moments in the Garden Hannah Levine, Lessons Errata : Eek! Last issue we cut off the last of Bob Clifford’s poems as 134 Dan Madaj, Pseudómina, and the Virus well as his bio. Sorry, Bob! A corrected PDF is posted on RC Writers. 137 Writing Then and Now: An Interview with Laura Thomas 144 Print copies of this journal were made possible by donated funds. A Brief History of RC Creative Writing 147 Program News 148 Dan Madaj serves as editor, etc. Endnotes 149 Contact him at [email protected] Women Returned Laura Hulthen Thomas In a time when women are making also don’t notice my almost childish noise, I’m retracting. wave to him, good night. How else to describe this drawing I’d hoped this retracting was a away I’m doing, from teaching others temporary slide into a borrowed shell, how to make noise in fiction, from writ- but a few thin-skinned months have ing my own stuff? While other women stretched into years. I don’t submit fight for equity, safety, and keep-your- much to journals now, or conferences, hands-to-yourself-dammit, why am I, or contests. I write fewer and fewer more and more, sitting this one out? I words, question the worth and origi- remain silent, now, when a colleague nality of every single one. talks over me. An idea of mine is I could be exhausted. I could be borrowed by another, and I don’t say, afraid. that’s mine. After a work banquet, a Would I still be myself if I’d spoken notoriously handsy male colleague lays up at the right times? A year after a hands on me, glues his crotch to my conference proposal I’d written was leg. I smile. I slacken. I nearly melt into rejected, a panel was listed in the con- his grab. We are surrounded by other ference’s guide using, nearly word for colleagues in this crowded hallway in word, the description I’d submitted. A the student union. He calls me gor- writing buddy of mine, a partner on geous, gorgeous, thrusts hard, lets me the original proposal, pointed out the go. My colleagues, clumped in private similarities. I asked her if we should do conversations, don’t notice. I pray they anything about it. We both decided RC Alumni Journal • 1 it wasn’t worth the professional risk the open, a matter between women. nostalgia quickly turned to distraction. a “masterfully masculine” man’s life to speak up. Plagiarism is tough to Mavis Gallant was one of my first When Canadian ex-pats Peter and that will elude him. prove. Coincidences happen, we could literary heroes, a woman who taught Sheilah, hoping to reinvigorate their When the party’s hostess, Madge admit that, and besides, no idea is me that stories about ordinary social standing among the Geneva Burleigh, orders Peter to take completely original. How many words people could be art, so I decided to crowd, are driving to the Burleigh’s charge of drunk Agnes (“Oh, stop had we inadvertently borrowed from compare the stories for myself. From annual Mardi Gras party, a perfume thinking of yourself for once, and our lives as avid readers? “Nearly” was the New Yorker’s online archives, the ad separates their arrival from the cir- see that that poor girl gets home”), the word that sold us. An exact copy we pages of the December 14, 1963 cumstances that lead to Peter leaving a Kent cigarette ad looms over might have defended. An exact copy issue glowed yellow on my screen, the party with his co-worker, Agnes. Peter’s reluctant acquiescence (“any might have earned us some defenders. as if I’d dug the magazine out of a At the bottom of the page, Peter command is a release, in a way”). “Nearly” was just enough originality to box of back issues stowed in my reflects, “She [Sheilah] does not know The suggestive tag, “For Satisfying question whether the source material attic. On the way to Gallant’s story, the importance of the first snow—the Pleasure,” hovers over a couple was really mine. vintage sexy ads for unsexy wares like first clean thing in a dirty year.” On the tucked into a snug alcove of rugged I decided not to submit to that Gold Label cigars, boxy GE transistor facing page, the Royal Secret perfume red cliffs. The man is leaning over a conference again, but that one dodge radios, and Pringle knitwear popped ad features a hand rendering of a woman perched on the rocks. His has led to avoiding other opportunities. from the magazine’s opening pages. nude blonde kneeling on an invisible smile faces the reader. The wom- Now, I’m down to a trickle: of words, A sensual Jackie Kennedy look-alike, surface, draped in a semi-sheer throw an’s face is slightly turned away. A of ideas and principles, and the will to her dark mascara a perfect match to that covers her breast and backside lock of her blonde hair obscures stand up for them. Is my retraction a the mole flirting with her bottom lip, and nothing else. One slender foot is her mouth.

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