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MUS MUSE IS THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL PUBLISHED BY THE LIT WORDS+IMAGES

PREMIER ISSUE

ISSUE01.08 MUSE MUSE IS THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL PUBLISHED BY THE LIT

JUDITH MANSOUR-THOMAS Editor Muse – (myooz), noun; Classical Mythology. 1. any of a number of sister goddesses, but more commonly the TIM LACHINA nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over THE BALLOT Design Director various arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric PEGGY LATKOVICH poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia this time Assistant Editor i know (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and ALENKA BANCO Urania (astronomy); 2. the goddess or the power regarded as the only Art Editor way to be inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like. free inside a broken America Welcome to the inaugural issue of Muse. Our concept is is to speak straightforward: Visual arts have long inspired literary artists in SUBMISSIONS louder than a vote their craft. Ohio is long overdue for a journal whose sole focus [email protected] is to promote literary artists and their work. swallow old reasons [email protected] and promise to always [email protected] always be the At the same time, we cannot and should not ignore the wealth in change visual arts that the region has to offer. It is my hope that in each issue of Muse, we will publish on the inside cover, a literary artist’s response – be it a poem, a short story, a play, or an essay – to the outside cover, an image created by an area visual artist. KELLY HARRIS Muse is a celebration of inspiration, spanning from the mundane to the extraordinary. Each issue will feature articles, book reviews, short stories, poetry, a calendar of literary events and opportunities, and anything else that might inspire readers and writers. Founded in 1987 as Ohio Writer, Muse is the quarterly journal published by The Lit, a nonprofit literary arts organization. No part of this journal may be reproduced So without further turgid or academic explanation, I hope you without written consent of the publisher. Visit us at www.the-lit.org. will enjoy Muse as much as The Lit enjoys publishing it. We are COVER silence #2, 11 x 14"douglas max utter, 2005 dedicated to promoting literary excellence, with a touch of THELIT elegance and a soupcon of humor. CLEVELAND’S LITERARY CENTER

ARTCRAFT BUILDING JUDITH MANSOUR-THOMAS 2570 SUPERIOR AVENUE SUITE 203 Editor CLEVELAND, OHIO 44114

216 694.0000 WWW.THE-LIT.ORG MUSE MUSE IS THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL PUBLISHED BY THE LIT

ARTCRAFT BUILDING JUDITH MANSOUR-THOMAS 2570 SUPERIOR AVENUE SUITE 203 Editor CLEVELAND, OHIO 44114

216 694.0000 WWW.THE-LIT.ORG 8 WHAT YOU LEARNED IN BOXING 0 1 ROBERT FLANAGAN 9 ELLIS ISLAND EYES 08 MELISSA HINTZ 11 THINGS UNSEEN SUSAN PETRONE

13 A BRIEF ESSAY ON THE HUMAN CONDITION

14 BEACON MELISSA HINTZ

15 IN ONE WORD, WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT? WENDY A. HOKE

16 AMISH EPISCOPALIAN: ON NEGOTIATING TASTE NEAL CHANDLER

20 LESS DAVID GOODMAN

20 VITAMINS NIN ANDREWS

21 WHAT’S GOOD TODAY? BONNIE JACOBSON

22 WHY I WRITE NONFICTION LEE CHILCOTE

25 HE STRIKES AGAIN! RICE HERSHEY

26 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

31 HOLLYHOCKS DAVID LEE GARRISON

35 IS IT REALLY THAT HARD? PHONE ETIQUETTE 01 false holes, real pockets, 76"x 86", mat dibble, 2007 MEGAN LUBBERS 08

M U S

4 8 WHAT YOU LEARNED IN BOXING 0 1 ROBERT FLANAGAN 9 ELLIS ISLAND EYES 08 MELISSA HINTZ 11 THINGS UNSEEN SUSAN PETRONE

13 A BRIEF ESSAY ON THE HUMAN CONDITION

14 BEACON MELISSA HINTZ

15 IN ONE WORD, WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT? WENDY A. HOKE

16 AMISH EPISCOPALIAN: ON NEGOTIATING TASTE NEAL CHANDLER

20 LESS DAVID GOODMAN

20 VITAMINS NIN ANDREWS

21 WHAT’S GOOD TODAY? BONNIE JACOBSON

22 WHY I WRITE NONFICTION LEE CHILCOTE

25 HE STRIKES AGAIN! RICE HERSHEY

26 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

31 HOLLYHOCKS DAVID LEE GARRISON

35 IS IT REALLY THAT HARD? PHONE ETIQUETTE 01 false holes, real pockets, 76"x 86", mat dibble, 2007 MEGAN LUBBERS 08

M U S

4 WHAT YOU LEARNED ELLIS ISLAND EYES IN BOXING The Czech woman waits a dozen beaded chains encircle her neck ROBERT FLANAGAN from her mother, her aunts,

Although Billy Conn claimed boxing was simple -- keep your chin your opponent’s collarbone to help stop the bleeding. With a her grandmother. down, your hands up, and your ass off the canvas, Patty McCandless puffy eye, you were not to blow your nose as you risked closing the had found you could learn a lot in the gym, if you could take the pain. eye and having the referee stop the fight. They were not on the ship First off, you learned that if you went into the ring, you You learned that everything was a matter of timing. were bound to get hit. No matter how good you were, you got hit. Don’t let your man get set to deliver. You see him get ready, ei- but they stand with her now Even the best got hit. Skeeter McClure, Willy Pep, even Sugar Ray ther beat him to the punch or change the distance between you. in line after line after line. Robinson. So you didn’t need to feel when you ate leather that Everything was a matter of angles. Never square up, but come it meant there was something wrong with you. And when you in on the angle. Don’t ever back up in a straight line, but al- got hit right, your eyes watered. But you learned that tears meant ways slip away to the side. Everything was a matter of knowing. He sees her eyes nothing, they were only an involuntary reaction, they were noth- Know what it was your opponent most wanted to do and then like a spring sky. ing to be ashamed of. It was the same with everyone. It was like stop him from doing it. Be smart — don’t fight the other man’s bleeding — you got cut, you bled. Like getting tagged on the side fight, fight your fight. Box a puncher and punch a boxer. A big I will marry her, he thinks. of the jaw where a nerve crossed over the bone there — when the hitter against a stick-and-move jabber could make lots of mis- nerve was pinched, your legs jackknifed and you went down. It takes and still win, but a boxer against a puncher could not af- Their lines diverge was automatic, it had nothing to do with character, toughness or ford to be wrong even once. A man with knockout power was will, it was just structure and mechanics. One of the many hard like someone born rich, he had an edge you’d never have. he has lost her facts of life, as your coach explained, which you might as well learn Life was not fair. You could be Rocky Marciano, come along before he could ask her. now as later. and knock out over-the-hill Joe Louis and grandpappy Wal- You learned that you could get cut and knocked down and cott, have a tough time beating a second rater like Roland LaSt- still go on, that you were not as breakable as you’d secretly feared. arza and light heavyweight king Archie Moore, never fight one On the streets of Brooklyn You learned that feeling afraid before a bout was nothing heavyweight of note while in his prime, yet have people call he hauls and sells fish to worry about. Everyone felt the same way just as everyone bled. you a great champion. Or you could be Ezzard Charles and searching each face to find Fear was your friend, your coach taught you, because it made you give it your all — brains and moves and beautiful technique, careful. Show him a man who said he felt no fear going into the have everything but size and a big punch, and people hadn’t the those eyes. ring and he’d show you a liar or a fool. sense to appreciate your talent. But you didn’t whine about it. You learned because you listened to what you were told: It wouldn’t change anything. If you felt bad about falling short She sews in a small, dim room he can run but he can’t hide; make him miss and make him pay; of the mark you’d set yourself, you kept it to yourself. kill the body and the head will fall. You listened because you Because that was what it meant to take pride in yourself and in twelve or more hours a day believed it could save you from humiliation, pain and loss. your craft. forty women but no one speaks. You learned to your surprise that your opponent was not You learned to take whatever came your way — tough your enemy. He was there to help you find out just how good you were. loss or dull draw — as you took roadwork, another step along You learned things that no one ever told you, things that the way, something to face without crying why me? or trying to They live three blocks apart you never told anyone. How morning roadwork was like serv- blame it on anyone else. but she never sees the sun ing the early side altar mass, it was lonely but helped you to believe Because it was just in the nature of things. That was and he watches it rise and set. in yourself. How gym work — skip rope, medicine ball, light bag, the heart of what you learned. If you got into the ring, you 01 01 08 08 heavy bag — was like saying the stations of the cross, a penance for were bound to get hit. M M weakness, yet giving you hope of being redeemed. MELISSA HINTZ U U What didn’t you learn in the gym? an excerpt from Champions, a novel in progress. S S

If your nose bled, you were to clinch and press it into www.robertflanagan.com EM

8 9 WHAT YOU LEARNED ELLIS ISLAND EYES IN BOXING The Czech woman waits a dozen beaded chains encircle her neck ROBERT FLANAGAN from her mother, her aunts,

If your nose bled, you were to clinch and press it into www.robertflanagan.com EM

8 9 THINGS UNSEEN

SUSAN PETRONE

I’d like to believe in things I can’t see—the unknown, spirits good guy, a good older brother. Signed up when he turned and all that. I’d like to, but I just can’t. My wife says that I’m 18, went away to war, and was dead by the time he was 20. lacking in faith. I don’t know if it’s lack of faith or lack of ev- My mother never got over his death, even after 40 years. He idence. The way I see it, if I can’t see something, or hear it or died for his country and she thought he deserved the honor touch it, how am I supposed to know it’s really there? of a flag on his grave. So twice a year, on his birthday and Me- Look, my mother died two months ago. After the morial Day, she’d go out to the cemetery and place a wreath funeral, we all came back to the house and when we came in, and a tiny Stars and Stripes on his grave. I went with her to all the photos of my mother and my older brother, Jack, were the cemetery every time until I moved out and started a fam- face down. I saw this, but I don’t know how the pictures got ily of my own. My mother never missed a visit. It never re- that way. There were all sitting upright on the mantel and the ally bothered me, her making a fuss about him even after he piano and the end table when we left, and there was nobody was dead. It never seemed to bother my father either. The in the house while we were gone, but there they were—every three of us used to make quite a picture, getting dressed up single one face down. It was me and my wife and my daugh- in our Sunday best twice a year just to visit a gravesite. I went ter, Lucy, and her husband and her two kids standing there. because it meant so much to my mother. I guess my Dad did The kids are only eight and ten, so we tried to act noncha- too. We went, all three of us together, for a long time. Then lant about the whole thing, but it was creepy standing there it was just my mother and father, and after Dad died, just my in my mother’s living room and having all the pictures of her mother. and my older brother who’s been dead for 40 years lying face She never wavered in her devotion to Jack, either. down. No explanation. She even tried to buy the plot next to his but she wasn’t al- I’m not a scientist or an engineer or anything, but lowed because Jack’s in a veterans-only cemetery. That’s why I spent 32 years at the Ford plant in Brookpark, Ohio, build- when we walked into the house after the funeral and saw all ing cars with my own two hands, so I know a thing or two the pictures of my mother and Jack turned face down, my about mechanics and all that. I certainly know that you need wife said that my mother must be upset, that it must be a to have some kind of force to knock something over. Things sign of some kind. She blamed the whole thing on my moth- don’t just fall over all by themselves. Even a feather or a piece er’s ghost. I can’t buy that. I know there’s all sorts of reasons of dust has to get moved by something. Things don’t move why the pictures could be turned down—an earthquake, one themselves. At least that’s what I keep telling my wife. She of the kids slamming the door on the way out, a heavy truck 01 01 wants to chalk the whole thing up to some kind of super- going too fast down our street—it could be anything. I know 08 08 natural phenomena. You see, when my brother Jack died in for a fact that they are doing construction of a new strip mall M M U U Vietnam, they buried him over at Veterans’ Memorial Cem- not four blocks from my mother’s house; one of those trucks S S etery. I was only 13 when he died, but I remember him—a could easily have gone speeding down her street and caused

10 darling, i will remember darling, 30"x 40", dana oldfather, 2007 11 THINGS UNSEEN

SUSAN PETRONE

10 darling, i will remember darling, 30"x 40", dana oldfather, 2007 11 enough vibrations to make the pictures fall face down. my parents. I’m not trying to sound morbid or anything, it’s When I tried to explain this to her, my wife didn’t want to just one of those things you notice. So my wife and I went hear it. I don’t know why she insists that it be just this one out to visit the grave yesterday, and right next to my moth- thing when it could be so many other things. er’s grave was this new headstone, a tiny thing, a baby’s head- We buried my mother in St. Benedict’s, right next stone. According to the dates on the stone, the kid wasn’t A BRIEF ESSAY ON to my father. It’s funny, because I don’t have any strong even two years old. But the thing is, his name was Jack. The memories of them together, just individual memories of name on the stone was Jack—no last name, just Jack. And I them—like for instance, me going fishing or to the hard- could even put that down as a coincidence, I could. Things THE HUMAN CONDITION ware store with my father, or having my mother bring me a like that happen all the time. Hell, I even saw my own name lemonade after I mowed the lawn. I don’t have a whole lot on a gravestone once, and sure, it chills your blood for a min- of memories of the two of them together, but there they are, ute, but you know it’s just a coincidence. The thing I can’t JEAN SEITTER-CUMMINS lying right next to each other for all eternity. It’s a shame explain though, is the little Stars and Stripes that was planted that Jack isn’t there, and I know it hurt my mother that she in front of the baby’s headstone. It was just like the kind my could never manage to arrange it so that she’d be buried next mother always used to put on Jack’s grave—the kind you put An elderly woman sitting in a rocking chair on her front her screaming. And sure enough, later on some brave is wear- to him. She kept all those pictures of him around to remind on a veteran’s grave, not on a baby’s grave. porch. she is snapping peas or green beans into a colander. herself of him. There’s pictures of me too, of course, she I don’t believe in ghosts and spirits and all that, ing her dress, her blue checked calico dress. And just the night before they were all sitting down to dinner with John Wayne didn’t go overboard with the photos of Jack, but she always but I can’t explain this. My wife keeps insisting that this all WOMAN laughing and passing the biscuits. seemed kind of disappointed when she saw me, like some- means that my mother and my brother are together again Look at the animals. Rabbits and mice scurrying What’s the word I’m looking for. . ? You know, you see it in how she was angry with me for growing older or changing. and that they’re happy. I guess she means they’re in heaven, around so fast because some predator is always running them those bank ads. Two silver haired people hugging each other Those pictures of Jack never change. He’s always 20 years old wherever that is. I don’t know what it means. It if had been down or trying to. And in the ocean the big fish eat the little on the golf course. Or maybe out in front of their house, their ones and then get caught by us. All the time. Every minute that with a freshly shaved crew cut and a uniform and this cocky just one thing or the other—just the pictures or just the brand new house that just happens to be right on the golf they’re alive that’s what their life is about: trying to make it to the little grin. I tell you, there were a couple times through the headstone or just the little Stars and Stripes, I could find an course. next minute. years when I was almost tempted to turn down all those pic- explanation for it. That kid just happened to be named Jack It’s what everybody wants, you know. No, it’s not There’s no retirement for the fish and we shouldn’t tures of him myself, just to get away from his face. Don’t get and just happened to be buried next to my mother. Coinci- prosperity. It’s something more . . .? expect one either. You know what I mean. You’ve seen it yourself. The me wrong, I loved my brother—still love him, loved my par- dence. It could have been there for a while and I just didn’t The older you get, the harder it is. The more things people at the next table laughing and talking. The women ents. I never felt jealous or neglected or any of that crap you notice. Or someone put an American flag on a baby’s grave you got weighing on you and waiting for you. Sickness and showing each other pictures. Graduations, weddings. You can grown children who won’t work and their children growing up hear people spouting off about on talk shows. We were a because the father was a vet. That kind of thing happens. hear their bracelets jangle, their silver bracelets jangling and any old way with no one looking after them. solid family. I’ve got no complaints, none whatsoever. It’s There are explanations when things happen by themselves, shining against their tan skin. And the men with their heads Think about how you were born pushing your way just that I already had mixed feelings about those pictures, but all these things happening together make me wonder. A together over their investments. Lying about their golf scores through some dark bloody space into a world of bright lights so to see them all lying face down after the funeral threw series of events ought to have meaning. Or maybe they’re or the fish they caught or their real estate taxes. and loud noises. Somebody slaps you and you draw your first Nobody’s really like that. It’s just in the ads. Anything me for a loop. But like I said, I can find explanations for the just a series of isolated incidents and we start connecting breath. Screaming your head off at the way life begins and you see in the ads is something that everyone wants and no pictures. That can be explained with a little bit of rational them together on our own. Like the other day, I was doing that’s how it ends, too, when you’re finally tired of drawing one has. Like interesting friends and good health and enough thinking and logic. a connect the dots puzzle with one of my grand-daughters, breath or maybe you just can’t because somebody just cut your money to order any entrée you want without splitting it or head off or filled you full of lead or dragged you under water to If it was just the pictures, it wouldn’t be so weird, and she kept trying to connect the dots to make a picture showing up at 5 for the early bird special. drown and then eat you or . . . but the pictures were just the first thing, and it was the sec- that wasn’t supposed to be there—she thought you could What right do we have to expect that now, I ask you? The worst thing is how tired I get thinking about ond thing that really got me. You see, my wife and I went connect them any way you wanted to make your own pic- Sitting here on my porch snapping beans like this one hun- it. How ready I am to leave it. Lying in a box with the worms dred or maybe two hundred years ago, I might have looked up out to visit my mother’s grave yesterday. We had been out ture. She didn’t understand that there was only one picture gnawing away at me or going up in a burst of flame and having and seen an Indian raiding party bearing down on me whoop- there right after the funeral, but I wanted to go out and see in there, hidden, and you had to connect the right dots in my ashes scattered all over the world. ing and hollering. I’d have called for the men if there were any it again, just to make sure that everything was okay and like the right order to find it. I’d like to have these things mean Reseeding my spirit. That might be nice. around and herded the children inside if I could find them and I think I saw that in a movie once. While the ashes she wanted it, you know? My mother and father are bur- something, to make some kind of picture. I’d like to believe then we would have broken the glass in our windows if we had were falling you could hear the man’s voice and he sounded . . . ied near a tree, not quite under it, since that spot was al- in something beyond just dying and being put in the ground, any and fired our rifles and waited to die if we weren’t lucky ready taken when they tried to buy their plots, but it’s close but dying and being put in the ground is all I’ve ever seen enough to get shot in the meantime. carefree. That’s it! That’s the word. Carefree! to the tree, in a nice spot. It’s okay. Like I said, we were out until now. And I’m not even sure of what I’ve seen. It’d be Rape us and scalp us and carry off our daughters. T H E E N D Like in The Searchers. Terrible movie The Searchers. Remem- 01 01 there right after the funeral, and I had visited the burial plot nice if there was something more than what I could see, and 08 08 ber the mother lowering the baby out the window? And the when we were making all the arrangements, and I’ve vis- I’d like to believe in it. I’m just not sure there is. M M grown daughter’s scream when she knows they’re all going ited my father’s grave enough, so it’s not like I don’t know U U to die. That’s the last thing before the fade out, the sound of S S the area. I know the names of all the people buried around

12 13 enough vibrations to make the pictures fall face down. my parents. I’m not trying to sound morbid or anything, it’s When I tried to explain this to her, my wife didn’t want to just one of those things you notice. So my wife and I went hear it. I don’t know why she insists that it be just this one out to visit the grave yesterday, and right next to my moth- thing when it could be so many other things. er’s grave was this new headstone, a tiny thing, a baby’s head- We buried my mother in St. Benedict’s, right next stone. According to the dates on the stone, the kid wasn’t A BRIEF ESSAY ON to my father. It’s funny, because I don’t have any strong even two years old. But the thing is, his name was Jack. The memories of them together, just individual memories of name on the stone was Jack—no last name, just Jack. And I them—like for instance, me going fishing or to the hard- could even put that down as a coincidence, I could. Things THE HUMAN CONDITION ware store with my father, or having my mother bring me a like that happen all the time. Hell, I even saw my own name lemonade after I mowed the lawn. I don’t have a whole lot on a gravestone once, and sure, it chills your blood for a min- of memories of the two of them together, but there they are, ute, but you know it’s just a coincidence. The thing I can’t JEAN SEITTER-CUMMINS lying right next to each other for all eternity. It’s a shame explain though, is the little Stars and Stripes that was planted that Jack isn’t there, and I know it hurt my mother that she in front of the baby’s headstone. It was just like the kind my could never manage to arrange it so that she’d be buried next mother always used to put on Jack’s grave—the kind you put An elderly woman sitting in a rocking chair on her front her screaming. And sure enough, later on some brave is wear- to him. She kept all those pictures of him around to remind on a veteran’s grave, not on a baby’s grave. porch. she is snapping peas or green beans into a colander. herself of him. There’s pictures of me too, of course, she I don’t believe in ghosts and spirits and all that, ing her dress, her blue checked calico dress. And just the night before they were all sitting down to dinner with John Wayne didn’t go overboard with the photos of Jack, but she always but I can’t explain this. My wife keeps insisting that this all WOMAN laughing and passing the biscuits. seemed kind of disappointed when she saw me, like some- means that my mother and my brother are together again Look at the animals. Rabbits and mice scurrying What’s the word I’m looking for. . ? You know, you see it in how she was angry with me for growing older or changing. and that they’re happy. I guess she means they’re in heaven, around so fast because some predator is always running them those bank ads. Two silver haired people hugging each other Those pictures of Jack never change. He’s always 20 years old wherever that is. I don’t know what it means. It if had been down or trying to. And in the ocean the big fish eat the little on the golf course. Or maybe out in front of their house, their ones and then get caught by us. All the time. Every minute that with a freshly shaved crew cut and a uniform and this cocky just one thing or the other—just the pictures or just the brand new house that just happens to be right on the golf they’re alive that’s what their life is about: trying to make it to the little grin. I tell you, there were a couple times through the headstone or just the little Stars and Stripes, I could find an course. next minute. years when I was almost tempted to turn down all those pic- explanation for it. That kid just happened to be named Jack It’s what everybody wants, you know. No, it’s not There’s no retirement for the fish and we shouldn’t tures of him myself, just to get away from his face. Don’t get and just happened to be buried next to my mother. Coinci- prosperity. It’s something more . . .? expect one either. You know what I mean. You’ve seen it yourself. The me wrong, I loved my brother—still love him, loved my par- dence. It could have been there for a while and I just didn’t The older you get, the harder it is. The more things people at the next table laughing and talking. The women ents. I never felt jealous or neglected or any of that crap you notice. Or someone put an American flag on a baby’s grave you got weighing on you and waiting for you. Sickness and showing each other pictures. Graduations, weddings. You can grown children who won’t work and their children growing up hear people spouting off about on talk shows. We were a because the father was a vet. That kind of thing happens. hear their bracelets jangle, their silver bracelets jangling and any old way with no one looking after them. solid family. I’ve got no complaints, none whatsoever. It’s There are explanations when things happen by themselves, shining against their tan skin. And the men with their heads Think about how you were born pushing your way just that I already had mixed feelings about those pictures, but all these things happening together make me wonder. A together over their investments. Lying about their golf scores through some dark bloody space into a world of bright lights so to see them all lying face down after the funeral threw series of events ought to have meaning. Or maybe they’re or the fish they caught or their real estate taxes. and loud noises. Somebody slaps you and you draw your first Nobody’s really like that. It’s just in the ads. Anything me for a loop. But like I said, I can find explanations for the just a series of isolated incidents and we start connecting breath. Screaming your head off at the way life begins and you see in the ads is something that everyone wants and no pictures. That can be explained with a little bit of rational them together on our own. Like the other day, I was doing that’s how it ends, too, when you’re finally tired of drawing one has. Like interesting friends and good health and enough thinking and logic. a connect the dots puzzle with one of my grand-daughters, breath or maybe you just can’t because somebody just cut your money to order any entrée you want without splitting it or head off or filled you full of lead or dragged you under water to If it was just the pictures, it wouldn’t be so weird, and she kept trying to connect the dots to make a picture showing up at 5 for the early bird special. drown and then eat you or . . . but the pictures were just the first thing, and it was the sec- that wasn’t supposed to be there—she thought you could What right do we have to expect that now, I ask you? The worst thing is how tired I get thinking about ond thing that really got me. You see, my wife and I went connect them any way you wanted to make your own pic- Sitting here on my porch snapping beans like this one hun- it. How ready I am to leave it. Lying in a box with the worms dred or maybe two hundred years ago, I might have looked up out to visit my mother’s grave yesterday. We had been out ture. She didn’t understand that there was only one picture gnawing away at me or going up in a burst of flame and having and seen an Indian raiding party bearing down on me whoop- there right after the funeral, but I wanted to go out and see in there, hidden, and you had to connect the right dots in my ashes scattered all over the world. ing and hollering. I’d have called for the men if there were any it again, just to make sure that everything was okay and like the right order to find it. I’d like to have these things mean Reseeding my spirit. That might be nice. around and herded the children inside if I could find them and I think I saw that in a movie once. While the ashes she wanted it, you know? My mother and father are bur- something, to make some kind of picture. I’d like to believe then we would have broken the glass in our windows if we had were falling you could hear the man’s voice and he sounded . . . ied near a tree, not quite under it, since that spot was al- in something beyond just dying and being put in the ground, any and fired our rifles and waited to die if we weren’t lucky ready taken when they tried to buy their plots, but it’s close but dying and being put in the ground is all I’ve ever seen enough to get shot in the meantime. carefree. That’s it! That’s the word. Carefree! to the tree, in a nice spot. It’s okay. Like I said, we were out until now. And I’m not even sure of what I’ve seen. It’d be Rape us and scalp us and carry off our daughters. T H E E N D Like in The Searchers. Terrible movie The Searchers. Remem- 01 01 there right after the funeral, and I had visited the burial plot nice if there was something more than what I could see, and 08 08 ber the mother lowering the baby out the window? And the when we were making all the arrangements, and I’ve vis- I’d like to believe in it. I’m just not sure there is. M M grown daughter’s scream when she knows they’re all going ited my father’s grave enough, so it’s not like I don’t know U U to die. That’s the last thing before the fade out, the sound of S S the area. I know the names of all the people buried around

12 13 IN ONE WORD, WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT?

WENDY A. HOKE

Slapped on the wall above my desk and in direct line of sight The author had a wise editor who came up with the one- when I gaze up from my laptop screen is a golden-yellow Post- word theme. The column was perfectly timed to help in my It note with the words: Select, Focus, Reduce. own work. Coming off two big writing deadlines in which I’ve “The best (themes) resonate,” he writes. “They re- had to compress a year’s worth of reporting into a combined flect universal qualities and truths about what it means to be #25, 8 x 10", jeff lorince 4,500 words of narrative, these three words have been my human … every domain has its own jargon, mores and rules.” guide and my editor—a constant check on my writing. While Scanlan wrote of the need for themes in newspaper Any writer worth his or her salt will tell you that it’s much writing, it works for all writing by providing a bridge through harder to write short than long. For this project, it almost narrative between writer and reader. Getting there can be hard seemed impossible. But I took a different approach this year. without a guide. BEACON I first relied on my memory. What were the most important themes to emerge this year? Who were the strongest charac- A good editor is invaluable, perhaps not even some- ters? What scenes were foremost in my mind? one trained as an editor, but someone who can pull back from While I could fashion a list and an outline with an- your story to ask the necessary questions to point your way swers to those questions, an overarching theme eluded me on forward. Our souls are battered my first story. But as I started to think about the links between “…You can give yourself, or another writer, that same the answers I had in front of me, the theme emerged. Every- a gift: a compass that points to the north star and helps you like tiny boats thing about this year and this project involves change. So I navigate journeys that lead to places where the best stories are on a sea of grief and tears. decided that I would explore: found,” says Scanlan. — the struggle to change If you’re working on a story, ask yourself or someone — the power to change whose judgment you trust: In one word, what’s this story really — one individual’s ability to effect change about? But calmer waters lie ahead — the need to change

where we can seek shelter This is the first time I’ve approached a writing assignment this way, to whittle an entire narrative down to one word, in the tranquil bay of loving memories. or, as Poynter Institute staffer, Chip Scanlan wrote this week— 01 01 one theme. 08 08 His “Chip on Your Shoulder” column provided a great M M MELISSA HINTZ example of how one photograph of Mississippi lawmen from U U S S the Civil Rights era could lead to an entire book about legacies.

14 15 IN ONE WORD, WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT?

WENDY A. HOKE

14 15 plained to me, speaking slowly, that if I simply stayed on the mous diesel engine, the sort that, were it not surrounded by gravel road without turning left or right at any crossing until I corn fields, might drive a large fishing trawler across the north came to paved highway, I would not get lost. Atlantic. Amish families ride, of course, in horse-drawn black When I arrived back at the warehouse in the city, it buggies, shun photographers and mirrors and even buttons, was late. David, who would normally long since have gone but they decorate at home with country calendars and rococo AMISH EPISCOPALIAN: home, was still hanging around. He watched me unload. woodworking pieces, bent-twig rockers, for instance, along “Well?” he said, grinning. side ornamental plant stands or racks with scallops and curls ON NEGOTIATING TASTE “Well,” I answered back, “I got them. The chairs are and fluting and contrasting laminated woods that show virtu- okay. This Hirschberger does good work.” oso, see-what-I- can-do-with-a-jig-saw technique and barely a “But it’s not just the chairs,” he pressed. “It’s the nod toward function. The effect is busy and showy and utterly house. I mean, isn’t it?” un-Episcopalian. Suddenly, it became clear why he’d wanted me to go Of course, such judgments are founded on the arche- NEAL CHANDLER for the chairs. ological assumption that to examine from some objectifying David had wanted someone else to see that house. distance the things with which people surround themselves, “Isn’t it perfect?” he said, “I mean, isn’t it just the way the organized space, the flotsam and pot shards of their lives, you want them all to live? Lean and clean, everything natural, is to reveal something essential about their being and values, For a year in the early eighties, I helped manage a contempo- Even then I found it difficult to get down to work, functional, matching, everything perfectly Episcopalian!” about who they are. And not far beneath that supposition lies rary furniture warehouse under a crumbling concrete ramp for if the valley outside had seemed idyllic, the house tran- “Episcopalian?” yet another one, the deeply romantic notion that if we learned in Cleveland’s industrial flats. The cavernous brick depot scended ideal. It was furnished and finished in a spare “Amish-Episcopalian.” David was always well ahead of to live correctly, live, that is, according to natural or even su- rd squatted warily on its brownfield at West 3 and Central. aesthetic that could have come straight from the Shaker Mu- me. There is an old joke certain Episcopalians tell on themselves. pernatural law, we would also have learned to live tastefully, But there in a brave trickle—or twice yearly in clearance-sale seum on decorous South Park Boulevard in Shaker Heights. Among us, they say, it doesn’t matter nearly so much what you in pleasing harmony with the natural environment. “Truth is waves—the city’s small coterie of design purists assembled to In the museum, of course, things have the stolid aura of pres- believe as that you dress well. And surely, there is something to beauty, beauty truth” wrote Keats, insisting that this was all we buy bookcases and cabinets and tables fraught with function ervation like taxidermy or specimen jars in biology labs. Peo- be said for taste as a theological bellwether. We all have fashion need know to get by. and free of ornament. Most of what we sold was particulate ple speak in respectful whispers, walking self-consciously and demeanor rules for the absolute. Whether it be a personal But while under maples on an Amish hillside in late in nature, arriving thinly veneered, laminated under pressure, from artifact to artifact, reading labels and wary of touch- God or a matter of ultimate principal, we brook no comb-overs, spring this may seem self-evident, it is not a phrase one can and “knocked-down” into boxes from Denmark or Eastern ing lest they show disrespect for the departed. Here, however, no personal tics, no embodiment of any sort that might show up speak out loud back in Cleveland on a loading dock under- Europe or the Philippines. But we also carried our own line of the furnishings, the same sort of furnishings—wash stands in church—or in the sanctuaries of reason—in a bad suit. neath the crumbling Eagle Avenue ramp. solid, hard-wood cabinetry. It came fully assembled and was and cupboards and rockers and braided rugs, a drop-leaf David’s enthusiasm for the Amishman’s home was A few years ago, I went on an outing with my grand- actually manufactured in Ohio, mostly out in the countryside table and ladder back chairs—possessed a smooth anonym- enormous, and I had to acknowledge I shared it. The house daughters, little girls as blond as morning, in matching blue by the Amish. ity, the ease and patina of actual use. This was furniture to dazzled with simplicity, was flamboyant with reserve, and sailor dresses and white sandals, running ahead of me hand in One afternoon David, the owner, came and asked make an antique collector’s heart surge, to make her freeze up hauntingly, mystically tasteful. It was, in fact, just the way you hand like a scripted vision. That afternoon in a giftshop near a me to drive a truck out to Holmes County to pick up a load like a bird dog in an aviary. But these were not antiques, and wanted to picture life lived by people devoutly withdrawn from waterfall, I offered to buy them a memento. I was feeling gen- of ladder-back chairs he’d ordered from a new supplier. It was the stark whitewashed walls had not been ordered up by any the plastic detritus of secular living, distilled down to the pri- erous, willing to spend a little and go for something nice that an eighty mile trip, and I found the cabinetmaker’s place in preservationist or museum designer, nor had the chestnut mary shades of a simpler, more natural and connected vision. would bond us and seem especially meaningful later, some- the hills well off the highway along an uncertain gravel road. red chair rails and window casings, nor the deep denim blue Life lived reverentially, gracefully close to the bone of nature, thing natural and educational, or beautifully handcrafted, or His multi-story farmhouse was built on a knoll overlook- in the curtains. without junk mail or tangled cords or multi-lingual operating regionally or historically significant. The girls listened to my ing a valley of wet ploughed fields between rolling stands of The chairs I’d come for had been stacked and stored instructions. It was, in a word, very beautiful. It was also decid- suggestions and demurred. We negotiated, then renegotiated, oak and sugar maple, sweet gum and tulip trees. When I ar- up in the farmhouse attic, but I kept making wrong turns, edly un-Amish. and later in another sort of shop settled on two acutely color- rived, it was approaching evening on a grey, early spring day, wandering into rooms where I had no business. It was em- The truth is that the Amish I know—for the most ful, machine generated vinyl purses, one fuchsia and turquoise, and fog floated over willows along the stream. There was not barrassing and intentional all at once, and I might, perhaps part—love linoleum and Formica and practical vinyl siding. the other purple and lime, in which to place a fistful of cut and a paved road, not a telephone pole or wire, not a sign or a sin- should have explained to the bewildered Amishman trying to They build their plain white homes without electricity, but polished, sub-precious plastic gems, injection molded in col- gle square foot of chain link anywhere in sight. In the ebb- lead me upstairs that this straying was a museum goer’s habit, nonetheless with a range of conveniences, powered cleverly ors heretofore unknown to nature, and whose absence there ing, angular light, the landscape was stunning, and I stood a kind of silent applause, a standing and wandering ovation. 01 01 even craftily by alternative energy sources, gasoline or kero- seemed, to me at least, a matter of benevolent design. 08 08 for a long time, hands in pockets, next to the company truck Probably, he assumed that like so many people he had met sene or propane. Their craftsmen craft workshops that recre- Later in the car, I consoled myself that it was, after M M and watched out over nothing in particular until Mr. Hirsch- from the city, I was not very bright about practical things— ate the whole range and sweep of electronic technology, but all, a free country, but how could creatures so innocent, so ge- U U berger, the cabinetmaker, a busy man with business on his like paying attention or following directions. He was patient S S powered through a complicated network of belts and gears or netically promising, so exceptionally well reared have fallen

EM EM mind, hustled me into the house after the chairs. but persistent, and when the truck was finally loaded, he ex- hydraulics, driven not by 220 current, but often by an enor- so quickly and utterly into the profligacy of kitsch. It’s a harsh

16 17 plained to me, speaking slowly, that if I simply stayed on the mous diesel engine, the sort that, were it not surrounded by gravel road without turning left or right at any crossing until I corn fields, might drive a large fishing trawler across the north came to paved highway, I would not get lost. Atlantic. Amish families ride, of course, in horse-drawn black When I arrived back at the warehouse in the city, it buggies, shun photographers and mirrors and even buttons, was late. David, who would normally long since have gone but they decorate at home with country calendars and rococo AMISH EPISCOPALIAN: home, was still hanging around. He watched me unload. woodworking pieces, bent-twig rockers, for instance, along “Well?” he said, grinning. side ornamental plant stands or racks with scallops and curls ON NEGOTIATING TASTE “Well,” I answered back, “I got them. The chairs are and fluting and contrasting laminated woods that show virtu- okay. This Hirschberger does good work.” oso, see-what-I- can-do-with-a-jig-saw technique and barely a “But it’s not just the chairs,” he pressed. “It’s the nod toward function. The effect is busy and showy and utterly house. I mean, isn’t it?” un-Episcopalian. Suddenly, it became clear why he’d wanted me to go Of course, such judgments are founded on the arche- NEAL CHANDLER for the chairs. ological assumption that to examine from some objectifying David had wanted someone else to see that house. distance the things with which people surround themselves, “Isn’t it perfect?” he said, “I mean, isn’t it just the way the organized space, the flotsam and pot shards of their lives, you want them all to live? Lean and clean, everything natural, is to reveal something essential about their being and values, For a year in the early eighties, I helped manage a contempo- Even then I found it difficult to get down to work, functional, matching, everything perfectly Episcopalian!” about who they are. And not far beneath that supposition lies rary furniture warehouse under a crumbling concrete ramp for if the valley outside had seemed idyllic, the house tran- “Episcopalian?” yet another one, the deeply romantic notion that if we learned in Cleveland’s industrial flats. The cavernous brick depot scended ideal. It was furnished and finished in a spare “Amish-Episcopalian.” David was always well ahead of to live correctly, live, that is, according to natural or even su- rd squatted warily on its brownfield at West 3 and Central. aesthetic that could have come straight from the Shaker Mu- me. There is an old joke certain Episcopalians tell on themselves. pernatural law, we would also have learned to live tastefully, But there in a brave trickle—or twice yearly in clearance-sale seum on decorous South Park Boulevard in Shaker Heights. Among us, they say, it doesn’t matter nearly so much what you in pleasing harmony with the natural environment. “Truth is waves—the city’s small coterie of design purists assembled to In the museum, of course, things have the stolid aura of pres- believe as that you dress well. And surely, there is something to beauty, beauty truth” wrote Keats, insisting that this was all we buy bookcases and cabinets and tables fraught with function ervation like taxidermy or specimen jars in biology labs. Peo- be said for taste as a theological bellwether. We all have fashion need know to get by. and free of ornament. Most of what we sold was particulate ple speak in respectful whispers, walking self-consciously and demeanor rules for the absolute. Whether it be a personal But while under maples on an Amish hillside in late in nature, arriving thinly veneered, laminated under pressure, from artifact to artifact, reading labels and wary of touch- God or a matter of ultimate principal, we brook no comb-overs, spring this may seem self-evident, it is not a phrase one can and “knocked-down” into boxes from Denmark or Eastern ing lest they show disrespect for the departed. Here, however, no personal tics, no embodiment of any sort that might show up speak out loud back in Cleveland on a loading dock under- Europe or the Philippines. But we also carried our own line of the furnishings, the same sort of furnishings—wash stands in church—or in the sanctuaries of reason—in a bad suit. neath the crumbling Eagle Avenue ramp. solid, hard-wood cabinetry. It came fully assembled and was and cupboards and rockers and braided rugs, a drop-leaf David’s enthusiasm for the Amishman’s home was A few years ago, I went on an outing with my grand- actually manufactured in Ohio, mostly out in the countryside table and ladder back chairs—possessed a smooth anonym- enormous, and I had to acknowledge I shared it. The house daughters, little girls as blond as morning, in matching blue by the Amish. ity, the ease and patina of actual use. This was furniture to dazzled with simplicity, was flamboyant with reserve, and sailor dresses and white sandals, running ahead of me hand in One afternoon David, the owner, came and asked make an antique collector’s heart surge, to make her freeze up hauntingly, mystically tasteful. It was, in fact, just the way you hand like a scripted vision. That afternoon in a giftshop near a me to drive a truck out to Holmes County to pick up a load like a bird dog in an aviary. But these were not antiques, and wanted to picture life lived by people devoutly withdrawn from waterfall, I offered to buy them a memento. I was feeling gen- of ladder-back chairs he’d ordered from a new supplier. It was the stark whitewashed walls had not been ordered up by any the plastic detritus of secular living, distilled down to the pri- erous, willing to spend a little and go for something nice that an eighty mile trip, and I found the cabinetmaker’s place in preservationist or museum designer, nor had the chestnut mary shades of a simpler, more natural and connected vision. would bond us and seem especially meaningful later, some- the hills well off the highway along an uncertain gravel road. red chair rails and window casings, nor the deep denim blue Life lived reverentially, gracefully close to the bone of nature, thing natural and educational, or beautifully handcrafted, or His multi-story farmhouse was built on a knoll overlook- in the curtains. without junk mail or tangled cords or multi-lingual operating regionally or historically significant. The girls listened to my ing a valley of wet ploughed fields between rolling stands of The chairs I’d come for had been stacked and stored instructions. It was, in a word, very beautiful. It was also decid- suggestions and demurred. We negotiated, then renegotiated, oak and sugar maple, sweet gum and tulip trees. When I ar- up in the farmhouse attic, but I kept making wrong turns, edly un-Amish. and later in another sort of shop settled on two acutely color- rived, it was approaching evening on a grey, early spring day, wandering into rooms where I had no business. It was em- The truth is that the Amish I know—for the most ful, machine generated vinyl purses, one fuchsia and turquoise, and fog floated over willows along the stream. There was not barrassing and intentional all at once, and I might, perhaps part—love linoleum and Formica and practical vinyl siding. the other purple and lime, in which to place a fistful of cut and a paved road, not a telephone pole or wire, not a sign or a sin- should have explained to the bewildered Amishman trying to They build their plain white homes without electricity, but polished, sub-precious plastic gems, injection molded in col- gle square foot of chain link anywhere in sight. In the ebb- lead me upstairs that this straying was a museum goer’s habit, nonetheless with a range of conveniences, powered cleverly ors heretofore unknown to nature, and whose absence there ing, angular light, the landscape was stunning, and I stood a kind of silent applause, a standing and wandering ovation. 01 01 even craftily by alternative energy sources, gasoline or kero- seemed, to me at least, a matter of benevolent design. 08 08 for a long time, hands in pockets, next to the company truck Probably, he assumed that like so many people he had met sene or propane. Their craftsmen craft workshops that recre- Later in the car, I consoled myself that it was, after M M and watched out over nothing in particular until Mr. Hirsch- from the city, I was not very bright about practical things— ate the whole range and sweep of electronic technology, but all, a free country, but how could creatures so innocent, so ge- U U berger, the cabinetmaker, a busy man with business on his like paying attention or following directions. He was patient S S powered through a complicated network of belts and gears or netically promising, so exceptionally well reared have fallen

16 17 question, I know, requiring a reproachful tone. I would not convergence of linoleum and asphalt and vinyl. have spoken it aloud. On the way home from our outing, my grand- In the matter of “kitsch,” Milan Kundera has said daughters fell asleep. It was a hot August day, and they’d been that we are not talking merely about “junk art.” “There is a drained by the humidity, a hands-on science museum, two kitsch attitude. Kitsch behavior. The Kitschperson’s need for large Slurpees, and all that hard-nosed negotiating. A lit- kitsch.” And that need in precise terms is this: “to gaze into tle sweaty and disheveled from running and shopping and the mirror of the beautifying lie and to be moved to tears of bumming around, they slept to the metronome thud of the gratification at one’s own reflection.” This declaration is cate- freeway in those distorted, make-do positions required by gorical and complex and seems far removed from the simple seatbelts. All the snap and pleat and eyes-up scrubbedness of derelictions I’ve been complaining about here. But it has the the morning were gone. We had all slipped down and back effect of spreading kitsch-culpability convincingly around— into that weary homeliness which after a long day overtakes if you do not sense the cogency in his observation, then you any homebound car. Yet held tightly on each lap was a pack- have never teared up, as have I with millions of others, over age of shrill, unrelenting color, and I found myself glanc- Folger’s Coffee or AT&T commercials, nor over certain scenes ing over and into the mirror, making peace with the fuchsia in romantic movies, The Graduate for instance, nor been and turquoise, the purple and lime, and with all those vulgar moved by celebrations in the soft-rock lyrics that dominate anti-colors tucked carefully inside, contradicting our faded your FM dial. You have also never glowed wistfully over little afternoon. Not that the garishness was gone, but it seemed girls in sailor dresses. Kundera’s own judgment is that art fails somehow softened—if only by a tired man’s inclination to when it fails to show us that absolutely everything in life is make do. more intractably complex and difficult than we had thought. When, for instance, I or my former boss imagines for the Amish how—as unworldly, religious people—they should arrange their furniture and coordinate their colors, we are imposing a formula that comes very close to Kun- dera’s definition of kitsch. We are really saying this is how we would live, how we would look, if we were truly unworldly and Amish: that is, so as to be worthy of Architectural Digest and the Shaker Museum. We graft our scrupulous aesthetic into the bearded sectarian’s more meticulous resolve. The ex- ercise tells us something about ourselves but almost nothing about those differently dressed people who drive buggies and avoid electricity in Holmes County, Ohio. Probably, it doesn’t even tell us all that much about ourselves. Art as affirmation, and surely as self-affirmation, is advertising. It has its uses for which it comes to us daily, abundantly through the mail, but if there is another more primary art, then likely it is precisely counter promotional, all interrogation, yielding no unchal- lenged emotions, taking prisoners, taking them always by surprise—from a welter, for instance, of electrical cords or the

01 01 08 08 circling, 15 x 19", susan e. squires, 2007 M M U U S S

18 19 question, I know, requiring a reproachful tone. I would not convergence of linoleum and asphalt and vinyl. have spoken it aloud. On the way home from our outing, my grand- In the matter of “kitsch,” Milan Kundera has said daughters fell asleep. It was a hot August day, and they’d been that we are not talking merely about “junk art.” “There is a drained by the humidity, a hands-on science museum, two kitsch attitude. Kitsch behavior. The Kitschperson’s need for large Slurpees, and all that hard-nosed negotiating. A lit- kitsch.” And that need in precise terms is this: “to gaze into tle sweaty and disheveled from running and shopping and the mirror of the beautifying lie and to be moved to tears of bumming around, they slept to the metronome thud of the gratification at one’s own reflection.” This declaration is cate- freeway in those distorted, make-do positions required by gorical and complex and seems far removed from the simple seatbelts. All the snap and pleat and eyes-up scrubbedness of derelictions I’ve been complaining about here. But it has the the morning were gone. We had all slipped down and back effect of spreading kitsch-culpability convincingly around— into that weary homeliness which after a long day overtakes if you do not sense the cogency in his observation, then you any homebound car. Yet held tightly on each lap was a pack- have never teared up, as have I with millions of others, over age of shrill, unrelenting color, and I found myself glanc- Folger’s Coffee or AT&T commercials, nor over certain scenes ing over and into the mirror, making peace with the fuchsia in romantic movies, The Graduate for instance, nor been and turquoise, the purple and lime, and with all those vulgar moved by celebrations in the soft-rock lyrics that dominate anti-colors tucked carefully inside, contradicting our faded your FM dial. You have also never glowed wistfully over little afternoon. Not that the garishness was gone, but it seemed girls in sailor dresses. Kundera’s own judgment is that art fails somehow softened—if only by a tired man’s inclination to when it fails to show us that absolutely everything in life is make do. more intractably complex and difficult than we had thought. When, for instance, I or my former boss imagines for the Amish how—as unworldly, religious people—they should arrange their furniture and coordinate their colors, we are imposing a formula that comes very close to Kun- dera’s definition of kitsch. We are really saying this is how we would live, how we would look, if we were truly unworldly and Amish: that is, so as to be worthy of Architectural Digest and the Shaker Museum. We graft our scrupulous aesthetic into the bearded sectarian’s more meticulous resolve. The ex- ercise tells us something about ourselves but almost nothing about those differently dressed people who drive buggies and avoid electricity in Holmes County, Ohio. Probably, it doesn’t even tell us all that much about ourselves. Art as affirmation, and surely as self-affirmation, is advertising. It has its uses for which it comes to us daily, abundantly through the mail, but if there is another more primary art, then likely it is precisely counter promotional, all interrogation, yielding no unchal- lenged emotions, taking prisoners, taking them always by surprise—from a welter, for instance, of electrical cords or the

01 01 08 08 circling, 15 x 19", susan e. squires, 2007 M M U U S S

18 19 LESS

When I saw a stain on a stainless steel knife, I asked my mother (being maybe eight) How that could be. She said, “Stainless doesn’t mean it doesn’t stain. It means that it stains less than other steel.” WHAT’S GOOD TODAY? This “less” thing has perplexed me ever since. Does it mean “not at all” or “somewhat less”? asks the soul slipping into its usual booth The problem’s most acute regarding hope. Am I hopeless if I’m hoping less, VITAMINS under a picture of the owner as Or only if I’ve given up all hope? a triumphant young boy holding a gaping fish My mother believes in vitamins. She even tells stories DAVID GOODMAN but despite the boy’s manly gaze about all the miracles they’ve done for her, I regret to say the owner is incompetent none of which are true. and occasionally rude A year ago, she tells everyone though the soul is the soul of patience at Thanksgiving, I was riddled with cancer. every day the soul tells the owner Just riddled with it. She says what it would like for lunch the doctors wanted to operate. and every day this is what happens Imagine operating on such an old woman! They wanted to give her chemo. They wanted to give her radiation. the owner takes the pencil from behind his ear My mother knew better. and pretends to scribble the soul’s order She took her vitamins. then he goes to the restaurant Lots of vitamins. next door where owners are catered to And not just ordinary vitamins. and has a leisurely lunch of tripe and beer No, the organic ones. The organic, natural-made vitamins. after which he returns to say the soul’s food And she healed! Naturally! will be just a moment longer No, she did not pray, he says sorry we are fresh out of water she adds every time. he says he is doing his best Then she looks angrily around the room as if daring anyone to ask. BONNIE JACOBSON My mother believes in vitamins.

Not God. 01 01 08 08 M M NIN ANDREWS U U S S

20 21 LESS

Not God. 01 01 08 08 M M NIN ANDREWS U U S S

20 21 Slater published Lying in 2001, a book that purports to be the there. It requires compromise. If I’m able to incorporate cre- autobiographical story of a young, epileptic woman. We learn ative elements into my stories, it’s often subtle – a brief de- that the writer may or may not have epilepsy, and may or may scription of a scene, a few words about a character. My goal is not be lying. If she is lying, how can you trust her writing? to be unobtrusive, to tell the story without becoming a char- WHY I WRITE Unlike Frey, Slater is seemingly honest about the fictions con- acter within it. tained in her writing – at least, as much as a liar can be. By de- Stories that blend good journalism with interesting liberating blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, narrative are the kind I crave. I feel that I have a responsibil- NONFICTION truth and tale, she raises questions about how much a narra- ity to tell the literal truth. At the same time, writing essays and tive – any narrative – can be trusted. journalism which I narrate, or in which I am able to incorpo- My own writing is not as experimental as Slater’s, but I rate my own ideas, seem to bring a different kind of truth to LEE CHILCOTE have been influenced by her work. I like the fact that she explores the story. the interior lives of her characters, and that she describe the The truth is that I’m a lousy fiction writer. The char- worlds that she is writing about in such vivid language. Some- acters that I stumble upon in my real life seem much more in- times I write about a local developer who is trying to create a tech teresting than the ones that I make up. I’ve learned over time “I think maybe you’re a nonfiction writer.” moving the salutation, published it as written. business incubator in the city; sometimes I interview an artist that this is not a failure of my imagination. I have a passion There it was, right in front of me. And with it, there My own editors were not usually as kind as Wolfe’s. and write about his or her work. In both cases, I try to insert my for telling stories that are grounded in real things. That’s why was no sudden epiphany, no white zigzag of lightning, just a The first freelance pieces that I wrote for the local alternative own voice and observations into the story. I write nonfiction. sense of things gliding into focus. newsweekly in Cleveland mercifully never saw the light of It isn’t easy to write stories that are marketable and We’d sat in my professor’s office, a bland, off-white day. Fresh from college, I wrote in a style more fitting for a re- fit what the editor wants, while also keeping that “voice” in room with a desk and a lumpy couch on the eighteenth floor search journal than a newspaper. In learning how to write for of Rhodes Tower, once a week for a month or so. We’d puz- a newspaper, I had to learn how to pare my writing down to zled through stories I’d written, trying to give them pacing the essentials so that it would fit the form. Overall, the experi- and character. One day, we looked at my nonfiction, and that ence made me less attached to my work.

changed everything. In my writing, I am interested in the line between fic- SABA, 18 x 24", william jean, 2007 My fumbling plots, my thin-as-dimes characters, tion and nonfiction, and the opportunities that it provides for my wooden dialogue – they couldn’t be helped. And my at- telling stories. Yet I still believe that nonfiction writers have to tempts at reform were as foolish as a crabby schoolteacher be responsible writers, and should strive to tell the truth. trying to break a left-hander of his habits with stern words There’s an interesting story about truth-telling in and a sharp ruler. This wasn’t something I could improve the “nonfiction” memoir A Million Little Pieces, written by upon. I’m a nonfiction writer. James Frey. Critics complain that much of the memoir work After that, I began to write essays, a few of which were that sells these days seems to be gushingly confessional and published in literary magazines. I also freelanced for newspa- over-the-top. Frey certainly understood this formula, and he pers and magazines. As I wrote, I used snippets of dialogue that found success with his autobiographical tale of wrecking his revealed something about the character, and descriptive lan- life with drug addiction. When it was picked up by Oprah’s guage that conveyed the scene. I tried to use my voice. Book Club, the book climbed the bestseller list. The notion that nonfiction is a real art form is not, Yet as it turned out, Frey had made up parts of the of course, very new. Beginning with Truman Capote’s In Cold book. And he had originally submitted the book as fiction. Blood and the “New Journalism” touted by Tom Wolfe in the Publishers turned the book down as a novel – but bought it 1960’s, non-fiction writers tried to knock the novel from its when presented as nonfiction. A Million Little Pieces has sold perch. Wolfe, for instance, felt the novel had separated itself over five million copies around the world. Not surprisingly, too much from real things, and that it should be both liter- the sensitive subject matter and the outright lies that helped ary and relevant. He promoted techniques such as scene-by- to earn the book attention and sales caused many to feel scene construction, real dialogue, and third person narration. cheated and exploited. Frey continues to deny that he fibbed. As a partial aside, there’s a story behind how Wolfe It seemed to me that Frey’s fabrications upset the 01 01 08 08 developed this writing style. Early in his career, an editor notions of nonfiction as “true” and “factual” that were held by asked him to write an essay about hot rod culture. Having many of his readers. I wonder how fixed and firm the genre M M U U trouble with the assignment, he instead submitted a letter differences between fiction and nonfiction really are. S S entitled “The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Other writers, such as Lauren Slater, have exploited EM

EM Baby.” To Wolfe’s surprise, his editor loved it, and after re- the wobbly line between fiction and nonfiction more openly. 22 23 Slater published Lying in 2001, a book that purports to be the there. It requires compromise. If I’m able to incorporate cre- autobiographical story of a young, epileptic woman. We learn ative elements into my stories, it’s often subtle – a brief de- that the writer may or may not have epilepsy, and may or may scription of a scene, a few words about a character. My goal is not be lying. If she is lying, how can you trust her writing? to be unobtrusive, to tell the story without becoming a char- WHY I WRITE Unlike Frey, Slater is seemingly honest about the fictions con- acter within it. tained in her writing – at least, as much as a liar can be. By de- Stories that blend good journalism with interesting liberating blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, narrative are the kind I crave. I feel that I have a responsibil- NONFICTION truth and tale, she raises questions about how much a narra- ity to tell the literal truth. At the same time, writing essays and tive – any narrative – can be trusted. journalism which I narrate, or in which I am able to incorpo- My own writing is not as experimental as Slater’s, but I rate my own ideas, seem to bring a different kind of truth to LEE CHILCOTE have been influenced by her work. I like the fact that she explores the story. the interior lives of her characters, and that she describe the The truth is that I’m a lousy fiction writer. The char- worlds that she is writing about in such vivid language. Some- acters that I stumble upon in my real life seem much more in- times I write about a local developer who is trying to create a tech teresting than the ones that I make up. I’ve learned over time “I think maybe you’re a nonfiction writer.” moving the salutation, published it as written. business incubator in the city; sometimes I interview an artist that this is not a failure of my imagination. I have a passion There it was, right in front of me. And with it, there My own editors were not usually as kind as Wolfe’s. and write about his or her work. In both cases, I try to insert my for telling stories that are grounded in real things. That’s why was no sudden epiphany, no white zigzag of lightning, just a The first freelance pieces that I wrote for the local alternative own voice and observations into the story. I write nonfiction. sense of things gliding into focus. newsweekly in Cleveland mercifully never saw the light of It isn’t easy to write stories that are marketable and We’d sat in my professor’s office, a bland, off-white day. Fresh from college, I wrote in a style more fitting for a re- fit what the editor wants, while also keeping that “voice” in room with a desk and a lumpy couch on the eighteenth floor search journal than a newspaper. In learning how to write for of Rhodes Tower, once a week for a month or so. We’d puz- a newspaper, I had to learn how to pare my writing down to zled through stories I’d written, trying to give them pacing the essentials so that it would fit the form. Overall, the experi- and character. One day, we looked at my nonfiction, and that ence made me less attached to my work.

EM Baby.” To Wolfe’s surprise, his editor loved it, and after re- the wobbly line between fiction and nonfiction more openly. 22 23 review HE STRIKES AGAIN! THE ELEMENTS OF COOKING TRANSLATING THE CHEF’S CRAFT FOR EVERY KITCHEN BY MICHAEL RUHLMAN SCRIBNER; 224 PAGES, $24

RICE HERSHEY

The Elements of Cooking just might be Michael Ruhlman’s pressed with his work as a craftsman and his growing skills as crowning achievement as a writer, if I may borrow his own ex- a writer, his discipline especially. uberant sense of hyperbole. He’s developed from dispassionate observer, (as he re- It stands out, even in a season of culinary/literary visited his single-sex high school) to avid student, as he dis- glut. This past year’s memoirs, food appreciation tracts, res- covered the joys of cooking and the people who make things taurant recall, cooking and kitchen screeds, plus the usual ex- happen in the kitchen. Real eye-openers have been Ruhl- cess of cookbooks: Well, where WOULD publishing be these man’s ventures into the building of wooden boats, into pediat- days if it weren’t for our, well, devouring appetite for all man- ric transplants, in searching for the beginnings of his historic ners of things culinary? Cleveland home. Finally, his association with restaurant greats EOC was one of four different works under my tree – and his ability to convert their wisdom into stunning, expen- this past Christmas. sive cookbooks – has this writer turning green with envy! It was the first to be read, and will be the first one I I have always marveled at his grit, if not necessar- re—read, I can assure you. ily his style, which, at one time or another, has bordered oc- What a plot! It’s an exhaustive lexicon with contents casionally on the reverential, and less frequently on the stretching from Acid to Zester, with lengthy digressions on fat, fish, pompous and dictatorial. With the advent of Ruhlman’s late- marinades, and recipes snuggled between Ruhlman’s straightfor- blooming career as television personality and participating in ward explanations of culinary terms, phrases and procedures. what some of us feel are less than classy public appearances, it The exhaustive and thorough work is preceded by a is reassuring to read that the guy hasn’t given up what he does series of short, authoritative pieces he calls Notes on Cooking, best. And he’s doing it with “finesse”. covering Stock, Sauces, the Egg, Heat, Tools and what he calls Finesse , Ruhlman writes, is “the cook’s finest chal- “Finesse.” These alone will probably have the enthusiastic lenge and path to the ultimate rewards:” a plaque in mentor reader dropping everything in search of veal bones to start the Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and Per Se restaurants reads perfect stock, (with a kitchen detour to throw out that hand- “f-i-nesse (fe nes’) n. refinement and delicacy of performance, cranked fruit-peeler and the el cheapo skillet used to fry eggs; execution, or artisanship”, he says. “Avoid inexpensive nonstick pans and the people who sell May this reviewer quote the man himself? “Finesse them,” cautions Ruhlman, can also refer to the extra effort that puts something beyond Inspired by— and using E.B. White/William the edge of excellence.” Strunk’s classic writer’s guide The Elements of Style as a role Ruhlman’s done just that. model, Ruhlman has come up a definitive text for both stu- And it would seem that the bigger he is the smaller dents and enthusiasts. Even knowledgeable cooks will find it he gets. He is writing with a pleasant and total self-assurance. useful for refreshing and defining phrases that escape every- He seems to finally know he’s Michael Ruhlman. The writer. day use. It’s an unvarnished, ego-free tome, and in the Ruhl- Not the personage. man canon, a decided step upward. We knew it before he did! 01 01 08 08 Tracking northern Ohio’s most successful writer M M from the very outset of his professional career, I’ve been im- U U S S

24 the arborist grafter: 22.5" x 30", carol lynn mitchell 25 review HE STRIKES AGAIN! THE ELEMENTS OF COOKING TRANSLATING THE CHEF’S CRAFT FOR EVERY KITCHEN BY MICHAEL RUHLMAN SCRIBNER; 224 PAGES, $24

RICE HERSHEY

24 the arborist grafter: 22.5" x 30", carol lynn mitchell 25 – 1,900-2,300 words. No previously pub- ing with no critique and short periods of lished material. Email [email protected] CONFERENCES, RETREATS, FESTIVALS, meditation. No previous writing experi- for complete guidelines. Deadline Febru- WORKSHOPS ence necessary. Saturday, February 2, 2008 ary 28, 2008. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UA Senior Center, Writing Ways Select Sunday Retreats. 1945 Ridgeview Road, Upper Arlington. Kaleidoscope Magazine semiannually Call 614.583.5333 for complete informa- Each Sunday includes three full writing CALENDAR publishes articles, fiction, poetry, per- tion and to register. sessions, continental breakfast, lunch and OF EVENTS sonal essays, reviews, and art that explore social time with other writers. Sign up for various aspects of disability. Submissions one, two, or all three Sunday retreats. Jan- Heights Writes Monthly Poetry Work- are sought for issue No. 57, the focus of uary 6, February 9, and March 10, 2008 shops, Heights Arts Studio, 2340 Lee Road which is “The Effects of War: Body, Mind, from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Each retreat - $75, in Cleveland Heights, 7 p.m. Call 216.371- & Spirit,” and for issue No. 58, the focus of All three retreats - $200. East side location 3457 for details: The Glasgow/Shenandoah Prize for kets, networking, blogs, teaching tips and which is “Disability and Childhood.” Send near I 271 and Cedar/Chagrin. Enroll- • February 12 – Meredith Holmes Emerging Writers, sponsored by Wash- more. Word count – 1,900-2,300 words. No submissions to: United Disability Services, CONTESTS & AWARDS ment is limited. Reserve by the first of each • March 11 – Kelly Harris ington and Lee University. Prize - $2,500 previously published material. For com- Kaleidoscope Magazine, 701 South Main month. Call 216.387.2729 or visit www. • April 8 – Heights Writes of Spring, free Akron Art Museum New Words 2008 Po- plus publication in Shenandoah. Open to plete guidelines, email Rachel_hanel@ St., Akron, OH 44311-1019. Visit www.ud- writingways.com for details. annual poetry reading etry Contest, open to all adult poets liv- all writers of short fiction with only one yahoo.com. Deadline January 30, 2008. sakron.org or call 330.762.9755 for infor- • May 13 - TBA ing in Ohio. Winners receive cash prizes and published book in the genre. To apply, mation. Deadline March 1, 2008 for issue Writing Ways Winter Workshop. will read their poems during the New Words send first book, one unpublished story Come Together: Imagine Peace, edited 57 and August 1, 2008 for issue 58. Sessions run January 9 - February 13 (No Playwriting Workshop with Sarah Mor- 2008 Poetry Reading on April 20, 2008. and biographical information along with by Ann Smith and Larry Smith of Bottom session January 23.) Choose 1-4 p.m. or ton. In this 8-session intensive, students Visit www.AkronArtMuseum.org or call SASE and a check for $25 (which brings Dog Press, seeks poems (1-3) and short The New Verse News covers the news and 6:30-9:30 p.m. East side location, near I will explore the fundamentals of playwrit- 330.376.9186, ext. 241 for more information. a one-year subscription to Shenandoah) prose (up to 500 words) that image peace, public affairs with poems on issues, large 271 and Cedar/Chagrin. Fee for all five ses- ing, including dramatic structure, story, Deadline January 2 – February 29, 2008. to R.T. Smith, The Glasgow Prize, Mat- nonviolence, reconciliation, compassion and small, international and local. It ac- sions - $149. Contact Susan Rzepka Orion theatrical language, and character de- tingly House, 2 Lee Ave., Washington and and hope. Send typed work (no email sub- cepts poems (especially those of a politi- at 216.387.2729 or visit www.writingways. velopment. Class meets on Monday eve- CNW/FFWA Florida State Writing Com- Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450-2116. missions) and SASE to Bottom Dog Press, cally liberal bent) by writers from all over com for details. nings from 6:30-9 p.m., February 18-24 petition seeks entries in fiction, nonfiction, Call 540.458.8908 for more information. “Imagine Peace,” P.O. Box 425, Huron, OH the world. See the website at www.new- (no class March 24) at Loganberry Books children’s literature and poetry categories. Deadline March 15-31, 2008. 44839. Payment is 2 copies, $10 and the versenews.com for guidelines and exam- Poetry Workshop, sponsored by The Lit, on Larchmere Road in Shaker Heights. Prizes range from $50-$100. Entry is open to world’s thanks. Contact LSmithDog@aol. ples. Paste your submission and a brief bio takes place the third Friday of every month Fee: $160 by January 31, $170 after January everyone. For complete guidelines and entry Periphery Online International Contest com for complete details. Deadline Febru- in the text of an email (no attachments) to at 7:30 at Mac’s Backs Books on Coven- 31. Enrollment is limited to 8. For more form, send a #10 SASE to FFWA Competi- for Magical Realist Flash Fiction/Prose ary 14, 2008. [email protected]. Write “New try, 1820 Coventry Rd., Cleveland Hts. information, contact Sarah Morton at tion Guidelines, c/o Dana K. Cassell, P.O. Box Poetry. Contest entries must include an Verse News Submission” in the subject of Call 216.321.2665 or 216.694.0000 for 216.534.7543 or [email protected]. A, North Stratford, NH 03590 or visit www. organic and obvious tie-in to literary mag- Milestones for American Women: Our your email. Deadline open. information writers-editors.com or www.FFWAmem- ical realism. Prize: $50 and publication at Defining Passages seeks articles about bers.com. Deadline March 15, 2008. the new Periphery Online. Free entry for life-changing events such as loss of a loved Thurber House Winter Writing Acad- READINGS & AUTHOR APPEARANCES MRCentral.net members; Entry for non- one, the birth of a child, midlife transi- EVENTS emy, a creative program for kids in grades Bellday Poetry Prize, sponsored by Bell- members is $5 per story or poem. Winners tions, etc. Word total – 1,900-2,300 words. K-8, will mark its 18th year in 2008. Our Joseph-Beth Booksellers January Events at day Books. Prize - $2,500. Contest final and selected honorable mentions pub- No previously published material. Email Small Press and Lit Magazine Bookfair, experienced team of educators will intro- Legacy Village, 24519 Cedar Road, Lynd- judge is Allen Grossman, author of nine lished in April 2008. For complete guide- [email protected] for complete guide- featuring the work of Ohio independent duce children to the joys of working with hurst. Call 216.691.7000 or visit www.jo- books of poetry and recipient of fellow- lines, contact magicalrealismmaven@ lines. Deadline February 28, 2008. publishers and showing of the film “ New words. Classes will meet each Saturday sephbeth.com for details: ships from the Guggenheim Foundation, hotmail.com. Deadline March 28, 2008. Orleans Outsiders: The Story of Loujon from February 2- March 8, 2008. Sched- the National Endowment for the Arts, Women & Poetry: Tips on Writing, Pub- Press.” The Lit, Artcraft Building, 2570 Su- ule TBA. Visit www.thurberhouse.org for • Evan Fallenberg signs Light Fell, Monday, and the MacArthur Foundation. Submit a lishing, and Teaching from American perior, #203, Cleveland. Sponsored by Bot- more information. January 7 at 7 p.m. manuscript of 50-70 pages of original po- CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Women Poets seeks practical, concise, tom Dog Press, Green Panda Press, and • John Billheimer signs Baseball and the 01 01 etry in any style in English with a check or how-to articles with bullets and headings DeepCleveland Books, Independent Mid- Writing from the Inside Out, a day-long Blame Game: Scapegoating in the Major 08 08 Women Writing on Family: Writing, on topics such as markets for women, why west Publishers and Authors Consortium. money order for $25 payable to Bellday writing practice with Nita Sweeney, free- Leagues, Tuesday, January 8 at 7 p.m. M M Publishing, and Teaching Tips by U.S. women write, time management, critique January 26, 4-7 p.m. Contact Larry Smith U U Books. For complete submission guide- lance writer and long-time student of Nat- • Joan Pagano signs 15-Minute Total Body Women Writers seeks practical, concise, groups, lesbian and bisexual writing, que- at [email protected] or Bree at green- S S lines, email [email protected]. alie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones,) Workout, Wednesday, January 9 at 7 p.m. EM

EM Deadline March 15, 2008. how-to articles on why women write, mar- ries and proposals and more. Word total [email protected] for details. In-class writing practice, optional read- 26 27 – 1,900-2,300 words. No previously pub- ing with no critique and short periods of lished material. Email [email protected] CONFERENCES, RETREATS, FESTIVALS, meditation. No previous writing experi- for complete guidelines. Deadline Febru- WORKSHOPS ence necessary. Saturday, February 2, 2008 ary 28, 2008. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UA Senior Center, Writing Ways Select Sunday Retreats. 1945 Ridgeview Road, Upper Arlington. Kaleidoscope Magazine semiannually Call 614.583.5333 for complete informa- Each Sunday includes three full writing CALENDAR publishes articles, fiction, poetry, per- tion and to register. sessions, continental breakfast, lunch and OF EVENTS sonal essays, reviews, and art that explore social time with other writers. Sign up for various aspects of disability. Submissions one, two, or all three Sunday retreats. Jan- Heights Writes Monthly Poetry Work- are sought for issue No. 57, the focus of uary 6, February 9, and March 10, 2008 shops, Heights Arts Studio, 2340 Lee Road which is “The Effects of War: Body, Mind, from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Each retreat - $75, in Cleveland Heights, 7 p.m. Call 216.371- & Spirit,” and for issue No. 58, the focus of All three retreats - $200. East side location 3457 for details: The Glasgow/Shenandoah Prize for kets, networking, blogs, teaching tips and which is “Disability and Childhood.” Send near I 271 and Cedar/Chagrin. Enroll- • February 12 – Meredith Holmes Emerging Writers, sponsored by Wash- more. Word count – 1,900-2,300 words. No submissions to: United Disability Services, CONTESTS & AWARDS ment is limited. Reserve by the first of each • March 11 – Kelly Harris ington and Lee University. Prize - $2,500 previously published material. For com- Kaleidoscope Magazine, 701 South Main month. Call 216.387.2729 or visit www. • April 8 – Heights Writes of Spring, free Akron Art Museum New Words 2008 Po- plus publication in Shenandoah. Open to plete guidelines, email Rachel_hanel@ St., Akron, OH 44311-1019. Visit www.ud- writingways.com for details. annual poetry reading etry Contest, open to all adult poets liv- all writers of short fiction with only one yahoo.com. Deadline January 30, 2008. sakron.org or call 330.762.9755 for infor- • May 13 - TBA ing in Ohio. Winners receive cash prizes and published book in the genre. To apply, mation. Deadline March 1, 2008 for issue Writing Ways Winter Workshop. will read their poems during the New Words send first book, one unpublished story Come Together: Imagine Peace, edited 57 and August 1, 2008 for issue 58. Sessions run January 9 - February 13 (No Playwriting Workshop with Sarah Mor- 2008 Poetry Reading on April 20, 2008. and biographical information along with by Ann Smith and Larry Smith of Bottom session January 23.) Choose 1-4 p.m. or ton. In this 8-session intensive, students Visit www.AkronArtMuseum.org or call SASE and a check for $25 (which brings Dog Press, seeks poems (1-3) and short The New Verse News covers the news and 6:30-9:30 p.m. East side location, near I will explore the fundamentals of playwrit- 330.376.9186, ext. 241 for more information. a one-year subscription to Shenandoah) prose (up to 500 words) that image peace, public affairs with poems on issues, large 271 and Cedar/Chagrin. Fee for all five ses- ing, including dramatic structure, story, Deadline January 2 – February 29, 2008. to R.T. Smith, The Glasgow Prize, Mat- nonviolence, reconciliation, compassion and small, international and local. It ac- sions - $149. Contact Susan Rzepka Orion theatrical language, and character de- tingly House, 2 Lee Ave., Washington and and hope. Send typed work (no email sub- cepts poems (especially those of a politi- at 216.387.2729 or visit www.writingways. velopment. Class meets on Monday eve- CNW/FFWA Florida State Writing Com- Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450-2116. missions) and SASE to Bottom Dog Press, cally liberal bent) by writers from all over com for details. nings from 6:30-9 p.m., February 18-24 petition seeks entries in fiction, nonfiction, Call 540.458.8908 for more information. “Imagine Peace,” P.O. Box 425, Huron, OH the world. See the website at www.new- (no class March 24) at Loganberry Books children’s literature and poetry categories. Deadline March 15-31, 2008. 44839. Payment is 2 copies, $10 and the versenews.com for guidelines and exam- Poetry Workshop, sponsored by The Lit, on Larchmere Road in Shaker Heights. Prizes range from $50-$100. Entry is open to world’s thanks. Contact LSmithDog@aol. ples. Paste your submission and a brief bio takes place the third Friday of every month Fee: $160 by January 31, $170 after January everyone. For complete guidelines and entry Periphery Online International Contest com for complete details. Deadline Febru- in the text of an email (no attachments) to at 7:30 at Mac’s Backs Books on Coven- 31. Enrollment is limited to 8. For more form, send a #10 SASE to FFWA Competi- for Magical Realist Flash Fiction/Prose ary 14, 2008. [email protected]. Write “New try, 1820 Coventry Rd., Cleveland Hts. information, contact Sarah Morton at tion Guidelines, c/o Dana K. Cassell, P.O. Box Poetry. Contest entries must include an Verse News Submission” in the subject of Call 216.321.2665 or 216.694.0000 for 216.534.7543 or [email protected]. A, North Stratford, NH 03590 or visit www. organic and obvious tie-in to literary mag- Milestones for American Women: Our your email. Deadline open. information writers-editors.com or www.FFWAmem- ical realism. Prize: $50 and publication at Defining Passages seeks articles about bers.com. Deadline March 15, 2008. the new Periphery Online. Free entry for life-changing events such as loss of a loved Thurber House Winter Writing Acad- READINGS & AUTHOR APPEARANCES MRCentral.net members; Entry for non- one, the birth of a child, midlife transi- EVENTS emy, a creative program for kids in grades Bellday Poetry Prize, sponsored by Bell- members is $5 per story or poem. Winners tions, etc. Word total – 1,900-2,300 words. K-8, will mark its 18th year in 2008. Our Joseph-Beth Booksellers January Events at day Books. Prize - $2,500. Contest final and selected honorable mentions pub- No previously published material. Email Small Press and Lit Magazine Bookfair, experienced team of educators will intro- Legacy Village, 24519 Cedar Road, Lynd- judge is Allen Grossman, author of nine lished in April 2008. For complete guide- [email protected] for complete guide- featuring the work of Ohio independent duce children to the joys of working with hurst. Call 216.691.7000 or visit www.jo- books of poetry and recipient of fellow- lines, contact magicalrealismmaven@ lines. Deadline February 28, 2008. publishers and showing of the film “ New words. Classes will meet each Saturday sephbeth.com for details: ships from the Guggenheim Foundation, hotmail.com. Deadline March 28, 2008. Orleans Outsiders: The Story of Loujon from February 2- March 8, 2008. Sched- the National Endowment for the Arts, Women & Poetry: Tips on Writing, Pub- Press.” The Lit, Artcraft Building, 2570 Su- ule TBA. Visit www.thurberhouse.org for • Evan Fallenberg signs Light Fell, Monday, and the MacArthur Foundation. Submit a lishing, and Teaching from American perior, #203, Cleveland. Sponsored by Bot- more information. January 7 at 7 p.m. manuscript of 50-70 pages of original po- CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Women Poets seeks practical, concise, tom Dog Press, Green Panda Press, and • John Billheimer signs Baseball and the 01 01 etry in any style in English with a check or how-to articles with bullets and headings DeepCleveland Books, Independent Mid- Writing from the Inside Out, a day-long Blame Game: Scapegoating in the Major 08 08 Women Writing on Family: Writing, on topics such as markets for women, why west Publishers and Authors Consortium. money order for $25 payable to Bellday writing practice with Nita Sweeney, free- Leagues, Tuesday, January 8 at 7 p.m. M M Publishing, and Teaching Tips by U.S. women write, time management, critique January 26, 4-7 p.m. Contact Larry Smith U U Books. For complete submission guide- lance writer and long-time student of Nat- • Joan Pagano signs 15-Minute Total Body Women Writers seeks practical, concise, groups, lesbian and bisexual writing, que- at [email protected] or Bree at green- S S lines, email [email protected]. alie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones,) Workout, Wednesday, January 9 at 7 p.m. EM

EM Deadline March 15, 2008. how-to articles on why women write, mar- ries and proposals and more. Word total [email protected] for details. In-class writing practice, optional read- 26 27 • John Henry Creel signs C-Reel Results: 12 • John Burnham Schwartz reads from Upcoming readings: tion, contact Larry Smith at LsmithDog@ Nia Coffeehouse hosted by Vince Rob- Greater Canton Writers Guild meets the Weeks to Permanent Fat Loss and Weight The Commoner, Friday, February 8 at • Thursday, February 14, 2008 – Jason aol.com. inson and the Jazz Poets with open mic third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 Management, Thursday, January 10 at 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m., Canzani Center (CCAD), Gray and Matt McBride, Room 306, Kent at the Coventry Library, 1925 Coventry p.m. at the North Canton Public Library, • Dr. Christine C. Williams signs Working Columbus. Student Center, 7:30 p.m. Fourth Tuesday Poetry Forum takes place Road, Cleveland Heights. First and third 185 N. Main St., Canton. Visit www.can- at 6:30 p.m. at the Bookstore on W. 25th, Tuesday of every month at 8:00 p.m. Free. tonwritersguild.org for information. as One: Fundamental Conversations That • Lee Woodruff reads from In an Instant: • Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - Irene McKinney, 1921 W. 25th Street in Cleveland. Bring 10- Call 216.321.3400 or 216.707.2486 for Build Cooperation & Get Results, Tuesday, A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing, Room 306 Kent Student Center, 7:30 p.m. January 15 at 7 p.m. Monday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m., Colum- 15 copies of a one- to two-page poem. Call information. Oberlin Filmmakers meet every Sunday • Tuesday, April 8, 2008 – Edward Hirsch, bus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave., 216.566.8897 for information. at 1:00 p.m. at the Oberlin Public Library, • Paula McLain signs A Ticket to Ride, Kiva, Kent State Student Center, 7:30 p.m. Performance Poetry Showcase first Fri- 65 Main St. Open to people at all levels of Wednesday, January 16 at 7 p.m. Columbus. • Wednesday, April 23, 2008 – Giving Literary Cafe Poetry Nite, with fabulous day of every month at April Galerie, 209 filmmaking. Short scripts are especially de- • Terry Pluto signs The Franchise: LeBron • Mary Doria Russell reads from Dreamers Voice: A Reading by Students from Area feature readers, open mike, and the Pen- 6th Street in Canton from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 sired. Contact [email protected] for James and the Remaking of the Cleveland of the Day, Wednesday, March 12 at 7:30 Schools, KSU Ballroom, Kent Student pad-Padpen Spontaneous Poetry Open. p.m. Prizes of $75, $50, and $25 will be information. Cavaliers, Saturday, January 19 at 2 p.m. p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, Center, 7 p.m. Write on the spot, share, and get into our awarded. Arrive ten minutes early to regis- 549 Franklin Ave., Columbus. • John Boertlein signs Ohio Confiden- yearend chapbook. Second Thursday of ter. For information, contact Audrey Lavin Thursday For Books discussion group • Joanne Harris reads from The Girl with tial: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem Cleveland Public Library Writers & every month at 9:30 p.m. Literary Cafe, at [email protected]. meets on the third Thursday of every No Shadow, Monday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m., in the Buckeye State, Tuesday, January 22 Readers Series upcoming appearances: 1031 Literary Road, Cleveland. Contact month at 7:00 p.m., at the Southeast Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 at 7 p.m. • Charlayne Hunter-Gault - Sunday, [email protected] for information. Poets & Writers Guild meets the fourth Branch of Cuyahoga County Public Li- Franklin Ave., Columbus. • William Guarnere and Edward Heffron February 17 Friday of every month at 7:30 p.m. at Are- brary, 70 Columbus Rd. Call 440.439.4997 • Nancy Horan reads from Loving Frank, sign Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends: • Tom Ricks – Sunday, March 2 Lyrical Rhythm open mic poetry & soul, opagitica Books, 3510 North High Street, for information. Two WWII Paratroopers from the Orig- Thursday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m., Colum- hosted by Q-Nice, every Tuesday at 9:00 Columbus. Contact Dottie Turner at • Anne Fadiman – Sunday, May 4 inal Band of Brothers Tell Their Story, bus Museum of Art, 480 East Broad Street, p.m. at the B-Side Liquor Lounge, 2785 614.263.9346 or Elizabeth Ann James at All appearances take place at the Main Li- Wednesday, January 23 at 7 p.m. Columbus. Euclid Hts. Blvd, Cleveland Hts. Admission 614.267.3085 for information. ANNOUNCEMENTS brary, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, E. • Ellie Krieger signs The Food You Crave: $4. Call 216.932.1966 for information. Poet Dunya Mikhail will read at Rocky 6th and Superior in Cleveland at 2 p.m. Free Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, Thurs- Story Swap, first Tuesday of every month Susan Rzepka Orion won the Larry & River High School, 20951 Detroit Road and open to the public. For more informa- day, January 24 at 7 p.m. Mac’ Backs Book Club meets the third at 7:00 p.m. at Mac’s Backs Books on Marcia McCartt Scholarship to attend the tion, call 216.623.2800 or visit www.cpl.org. in Rocky River at 7:30 on February 12, Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. On Coventry, 1820 Coventry Road. Call 4th Annual Writers in Paradise Conference • Stephanie and Matt Verish sign An Un- 2008. The Baghdad-born poet has pub- January 16, the book club discusses What 216.321.2665 for more information. at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Flor- likely Journey: Book One of Raven’s Heart, lished four collections of poetry in Ara- is the What by Dave Eggers, based on the ida. The scholarship is given annually to a Wednesday, January 30 at 7 p.m. ONGOING EVENTS bic and one in English. In 2001, she was true experiences of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Tri-C/Java City Writers’ Jam at Cuyahoga woman has overcome personal hardships awarded the UN Human Rights Award Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry, 1820 Community College Western Cam- and shows talent and a strong commit- Mac’s Backs Monthly Poetry Read- Celebrating The Differences In Our- for Freedom of Writing. Sponsored by Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights. Call pus, Java City (lower level Galleria), 11000 ment to the craft of writing and its ability to ing, featuring Marjorie Howard John- selves: The B Word Poets’ Readings/ the Rocky River Public Library and Rocky 216.321.2665 or visit www.macsbacks.com Pleasant Valley Rd., Parma. Third Thurs- heal the human spirit. Susan, the founder son, author of Mad Mother Moon, and Workshops take place the first Monday of River Schools. Contact the library at for details. day of every month at 7:30 p.m. Free. of Writing Ways, offers writing workshops, Jim Garnett, author of At the Five-and- every month at 6 p.m. at Cleveland Pub- 440.333.7610 or visit www.rrpl.org for Readers must sign up in advance. Con- retreats, and special sessions at the Gather- Dime, followed by an open mic. Mac’s lic Library, Rice Branch, 2820 E. 116th St. more information. Mahogany Red: The Red Hot Experi- tact Amy at 216.987.5496 or amy.cruick- ing Place, a support facility for those whose Backs Books on Coventry, 1820 Coven- Cleveland. ence, a night of artistic expression takes [email protected] to register. lives have been touched by cancer. try Road in Cleveland Heights, 7 p.m. Call Valentine’s Day Reading at Second Tues- place every Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. at 216.321.2665 or visit www.macsbacks. Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour takes place day Poetry, with featured readers Geof- The Living Room Coffee Lounge, 4828 Lo- The Vibe Session, open mic poetry and com for details. the second Friday of every month at Bor- frey A. Landis and Mary Turzillo, followed rain Ave., Admission $5.00. Contact G Styl, soul, takes place every Sunday Every Sun- ders, 17200 Royalton Road in Strongsville. by and open mic. February 14, 2008, 7-9 216.235.9803 or [email protected] for day at Kamikaze Coffee House, 4630 War- Thurber House 2008 Winter/Spring Eve- Reading begins at 8:30 p.m. and includes p.m. at Insights Coffee, 1661 Pearl Road, information. rensville Center, North Randall. Hosted by nings with Authors. Contact Missie Ken- a featured reader and an open mic. Con- Brunswick. Contact Geoffrey Landis at Q-Nice. music by DJ Tom Noy. Admission dall at 614.444.1032, ext. 11 or visit www. tact Joshua Gage at 440.846.1144 for more 330.225.0192 for details. Neo Soul, open mic hosted by Athena, $5.00. Call216.663.2895 for information. thurberhouse.org for details: information. 01 01 every Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. at 2573 08 08 • Kurt Anderson reads from Heyday, Tues- Wick Poetry Reading Series is a program Noble Road, Cleveland Heights. $5 cover. Wordplay, every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. M M day, January 15 at 7:30 p.m., Colum- First Sunday Readings take place at of the Wick Poetry Center in the College Call 216.324.9099 or 330.962.1121 for on WJCU, 88.7 FM featuring local poets. U U bus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave., Joe’s Sundaes, corner of Washington and S S of Arts & Sciences at Kent State University. information. Hosted by George Bilgere. [email protected]

Columbus. Shelby, Sandusky at 2:00 p.m. For informa- EM

28 29 • John Henry Creel signs C-Reel Results: 12 • John Burnham Schwartz reads from Upcoming readings: tion, contact Larry Smith at LsmithDog@ Nia Coffeehouse hosted by Vince Rob- Greater Canton Writers Guild meets the Weeks to Permanent Fat Loss and Weight The Commoner, Friday, February 8 at • Thursday, February 14, 2008 – Jason aol.com. inson and the Jazz Poets with open mic third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 Management, Thursday, January 10 at 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m., Canzani Center (CCAD), Gray and Matt McBride, Room 306, Kent at the Coventry Library, 1925 Coventry p.m. at the North Canton Public Library, • Dr. Christine C. Williams signs Working Columbus. Student Center, 7:30 p.m. Fourth Tuesday Poetry Forum takes place Road, Cleveland Heights. First and third 185 N. Main St., Canton. Visit www.can- at 6:30 p.m. at the Bookstore on W. 25th, Tuesday of every month at 8:00 p.m. Free. tonwritersguild.org for information. as One: Fundamental Conversations That • Lee Woodruff reads from In an Instant: • Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - Irene McKinney, 1921 W. 25th Street in Cleveland. Bring 10- Call 216.321.3400 or 216.707.2486 for Build Cooperation & Get Results, Tuesday, A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing, Room 306 Kent Student Center, 7:30 p.m. January 15 at 7 p.m. Monday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m., Colum- 15 copies of a one- to two-page poem. Call information. Oberlin Filmmakers meet every Sunday • Tuesday, April 8, 2008 – Edward Hirsch, bus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave., 216.566.8897 for information. at 1:00 p.m. at the Oberlin Public Library, • Paula McLain signs A Ticket to Ride, Kiva, Kent State Student Center, 7:30 p.m. Performance Poetry Showcase first Fri- 65 Main St. Open to people at all levels of Wednesday, January 16 at 7 p.m. Columbus. • Wednesday, April 23, 2008 – Giving Literary Cafe Poetry Nite, with fabulous day of every month at April Galerie, 209 filmmaking. Short scripts are especially de- • Terry Pluto signs The Franchise: LeBron • Mary Doria Russell reads from Dreamers Voice: A Reading by Students from Area feature readers, open mike, and the Pen- 6th Street in Canton from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 sired. Contact [email protected] for James and the Remaking of the Cleveland of the Day, Wednesday, March 12 at 7:30 Schools, KSU Ballroom, Kent Student pad-Padpen Spontaneous Poetry Open. p.m. Prizes of $75, $50, and $25 will be information. Cavaliers, Saturday, January 19 at 2 p.m. p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, Center, 7 p.m. Write on the spot, share, and get into our awarded. Arrive ten minutes early to regis- 549 Franklin Ave., Columbus. • John Boertlein signs Ohio Confiden- yearend chapbook. Second Thursday of ter. For information, contact Audrey Lavin Thursday For Books discussion group • Joanne Harris reads from The Girl with tial: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem Cleveland Public Library Writers & every month at 9:30 p.m. Literary Cafe, at [email protected]. meets on the third Thursday of every No Shadow, Monday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m., in the Buckeye State, Tuesday, January 22 Readers Series upcoming appearances: 1031 Literary Road, Cleveland. Contact month at 7:00 p.m., at the Southeast Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 at 7 p.m. • Charlayne Hunter-Gault - Sunday, [email protected] for information. Poets & Writers Guild meets the fourth Branch of Cuyahoga County Public Li- Franklin Ave., Columbus. • William Guarnere and Edward Heffron February 17 Friday of every month at 7:30 p.m. at Are- brary, 70 Columbus Rd. Call 440.439.4997 • Nancy Horan reads from Loving Frank, sign Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends: • Tom Ricks – Sunday, March 2 Lyrical Rhythm open mic poetry & soul, opagitica Books, 3510 North High Street, for information. Two WWII Paratroopers from the Orig- Thursday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m., Colum- hosted by Q-Nice, every Tuesday at 9:00 Columbus. Contact Dottie Turner at • Anne Fadiman – Sunday, May 4 inal Band of Brothers Tell Their Story, bus Museum of Art, 480 East Broad Street, p.m. at the B-Side Liquor Lounge, 2785 614.263.9346 or Elizabeth Ann James at All appearances take place at the Main Li- Wednesday, January 23 at 7 p.m. Columbus. Euclid Hts. Blvd, Cleveland Hts. Admission 614.267.3085 for information. ANNOUNCEMENTS brary, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, E. • Ellie Krieger signs The Food You Crave: $4. Call 216.932.1966 for information. Poet Dunya Mikhail will read at Rocky 6th and Superior in Cleveland at 2 p.m. Free Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, Thurs- Story Swap, first Tuesday of every month Susan Rzepka Orion won the Larry & River High School, 20951 Detroit Road and open to the public. For more informa- day, January 24 at 7 p.m. Mac’ Backs Book Club meets the third at 7:00 p.m. at Mac’s Backs Books on Marcia McCartt Scholarship to attend the tion, call 216.623.2800 or visit www.cpl.org. in Rocky River at 7:30 on February 12, Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. On Coventry, 1820 Coventry Road. Call 4th Annual Writers in Paradise Conference • Stephanie and Matt Verish sign An Un- 2008. The Baghdad-born poet has pub- January 16, the book club discusses What 216.321.2665 for more information. at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Flor- likely Journey: Book One of Raven’s Heart, lished four collections of poetry in Ara- is the What by Dave Eggers, based on the ida. The scholarship is given annually to a Wednesday, January 30 at 7 p.m. ONGOING EVENTS bic and one in English. In 2001, she was true experiences of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Tri-C/Java City Writers’ Jam at Cuyahoga woman has overcome personal hardships awarded the UN Human Rights Award Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry, 1820 Community College Western Cam- and shows talent and a strong commit- Mac’s Backs Monthly Poetry Read- Celebrating The Differences In Our- for Freedom of Writing. Sponsored by Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights. Call pus, Java City (lower level Galleria), 11000 ment to the craft of writing and its ability to ing, featuring Marjorie Howard John- selves: The B Word Poets’ Readings/ the Rocky River Public Library and Rocky 216.321.2665 or visit www.macsbacks.com Pleasant Valley Rd., Parma. Third Thurs- heal the human spirit. Susan, the founder son, author of Mad Mother Moon, and Workshops take place the first Monday of River Schools. Contact the library at for details. day of every month at 7:30 p.m. Free. of Writing Ways, offers writing workshops, Jim Garnett, author of At the Five-and- every month at 6 p.m. at Cleveland Pub- 440.333.7610 or visit www.rrpl.org for Readers must sign up in advance. Con- retreats, and special sessions at the Gather- Dime, followed by an open mic. Mac’s lic Library, Rice Branch, 2820 E. 116th St. more information. Mahogany Red: The Red Hot Experi- tact Amy at 216.987.5496 or amy.cruick- ing Place, a support facility for those whose Backs Books on Coventry, 1820 Coven- Cleveland. ence, a night of artistic expression takes [email protected] to register. lives have been touched by cancer. try Road in Cleveland Heights, 7 p.m. Call Valentine’s Day Reading at Second Tues- place every Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. at 216.321.2665 or visit www.macsbacks. Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour takes place day Poetry, with featured readers Geof- The Living Room Coffee Lounge, 4828 Lo- The Vibe Session, open mic poetry and com for details. the second Friday of every month at Bor- frey A. Landis and Mary Turzillo, followed rain Ave., Admission $5.00. Contact G Styl, soul, takes place every Sunday Every Sun- ders, 17200 Royalton Road in Strongsville. by and open mic. February 14, 2008, 7-9 216.235.9803 or [email protected] for day at Kamikaze Coffee House, 4630 War- Thurber House 2008 Winter/Spring Eve- Reading begins at 8:30 p.m. and includes p.m. at Insights Coffee, 1661 Pearl Road, information. rensville Center, North Randall. Hosted by nings with Authors. Contact Missie Ken- a featured reader and an open mic. Con- Brunswick. Contact Geoffrey Landis at Q-Nice. music by DJ Tom Noy. Admission dall at 614.444.1032, ext. 11 or visit www. tact Joshua Gage at 440.846.1144 for more 330.225.0192 for details. Neo Soul, open mic hosted by Athena, $5.00. Call216.663.2895 for information. thurberhouse.org for details: information. 01 01 every Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. at 2573 08 08 • Kurt Anderson reads from Heyday, Tues- Wick Poetry Reading Series is a program Noble Road, Cleveland Heights. $5 cover. Wordplay, every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. M M day, January 15 at 7:30 p.m., Colum- First Sunday Readings take place at of the Wick Poetry Center in the College Call 216.324.9099 or 330.962.1121 for on WJCU, 88.7 FM featuring local poets. U U bus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave., Joe’s Sundaes, corner of Washington and S S of Arts & Sciences at Kent State University. information. Hosted by George Bilgere. [email protected]

Columbus. Shelby, Sandusky at 2:00 p.m. For informa- EM

28 29 review HOLLYHOCKS ROBERT L. BRIMM. GEORGETOWN, KY: FINISHING LINE PRESS, 2007. $14.

DAVID LEE GARRISON Wright State University

Here is a book that will cheer you up. The poetry of Robert In the last poem, “What Might Have Been,” the poet Brimm highlights the joyful details of the world, things like muses on what his childhood might have been like in more morning rain comfortable circumstances. Instead of wishing for things he did not have, he gives thanks for what he did have. He sees just tuning up, kerosene lamps and new shoes once a year and being raised getting the rhythm by his grandparents not as a hardship but as a gift. His life down pat, preparing would have been different in an easier life, but then there for the big parade, would not have been, he concludes, “this richness of things / warming up the crowd bearing witness to my good fortune.” In the end he sees his for a full concert hard life as a good one, a life he has been glad to live. of dazzling color, He has also been glad to write about his life. all that jazz. Brimm has that fascination for words that children and poets share. He hears Throughout the book, the poet reminds us to savor the sound of crickets, the play of finches, the feel of ripe berries that welter of words calling my on fingers or mud between toes. name, begging me to rescue them Mixed in with sensual images of the natural world from going trickling off into pools are memories of childhood. While his was filled with the of lost thought, fragile-imaged hard work of farm life, the poet focuses on happy memories mirrors that a tiny bee can shatter of a grandmother who knew the importance of growing by flying too near their surface, impractical flowers like hollyhocks as well as vegetables. then I gathered them, put them The poet lugged loam in a bucket all in a safe place called a poem.

to a dedicated circle Again and again, he reflects on the palpability of words, the of depleted yellow clay strange sensation of words as objects that we can touch. He behind the house, envisions words as the very birds, flowers, weeds, and water heaped this found food that he describes. there for furry-jacketed All of Brimm’s poems are unpretentious and easy seed from a deep pocket to understand. Like Billy Collins, he believes that a poem of Grandma’s apron, should invite the reader in and then show him its mystery. We read the poems and immediately know what they mean; and they became the most we read them again to savor them. sun-catching, bee-luring, Louise Gluck said that “we see life only once, in beautiful flowers childhood. The rest is memory.” Robert Brimm’s poems I had ever seen… help us recapture that vision we had as children.

Brimm’s short lines of free verse are quiet and spare, yet filled with reverence for the world and its bounty, and for the people who loved him.

01 08

M U S

31 SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING PATRONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT TO A Work In Progress, The Lit’s Grand Opening

Corporations: Aladdin Eateries Ambiance, The Store for Lovers Arabica Coffee Assad’s Bakery Big Fun Bravo/Brio Ristorante Chalet Debonne City Buddha Crate & Barrel Cleveland Cavaliers, Joe Gabriele Cleveland International Film Festival Coventry Cats Delphic Books Dewey’s Coffee Fiesty Handbags, Nicole Ledinek FitWorks Individuals: Great Lakes Brewing Company JoEllen Cornrich Imagine Salon & Spa Gene Epstein Joe’s Deli Kim Haikal Mac’s Backs Coventry Rice Hershey MOCA Cleveland Bonnie Jacobson Nigttown John Koncar Panera Bread Tim & Sally Lachina Phoenix Coffee Terre Maher Playhouse Square Maureen Moses Ponte Vecchio Ed & Mary Rynes Passport to Peru Meghan E. Thomas The Lit Board of Directors Kirsten S. Thomas Three Gates Massage RA Washington TTI Floorcare Utrecht Vidstar Video Wadsworth Productions IS IT REALLY THAT HARD? SMALL PRESS EXHIBIT- PHONE ETIQUETTE BOOKFAIR & SHOWING MEGAN LUBBERS OF “NEW ORLEANS I’m not a very good phone talker, in gen- in mid-thought or mid-dishwashing, it In general, I approve of conversation. Un- OUTSIDERS: THE STORY eral. I get easily distracted by shiny ob- takes a moment to switch tracks and par- less you’re a telemarketer, in which case jects and lose track of the conversation. ticipate in the conversation. Refusing to it’s less “conversation” and more “bellig- OF LOUJON PRESS” Or I ramble and completely lose sight of identify yourself only prolongs the part erent badgering of an innocent citizen.” my original train of thought—if one even where I stand with my mouth hanging The distractions. While conver- DOCUMENTARY FILM BY existed. open and stare blankly at the phone, and sation is a good thing, distractions dur- WAYNE EWING (7:00 PM) But there are other reasons why based on one or two syllables, try to fit ing the conversation are a bad thing. If I don’t particularly enjoy talking on the this voice into a context. you have called me, or have answered the phone. Since Alexander Graham Bell in- The pleasantries. After all par- phone when I called and deigned to talk vented the telephone in 1876, people have ties have been appropriately identified, to me, then we’ve entered into a nonver- January 26th, 4-9 pm been using this fabulous instrument to the pleasantries commence. Relatively in- bal agreement to pay attention to each annoy each other. The annoyance can sipid topics like “how’s the weather?” or other. Don’t start a conversation with at The Lit, ArtCraft Building, come from the phoner or the phonee, but “watcha been up to?” They require little someone in your geographical vicin- most likely, it’s both. thought and equally banal answers. ity in which I cannot partake. Most espe- 2570 Superior Avenue Suite 203, The ring. Historically, the ring I am actually in favor of the cially when it doesn’t concern me. Don’t Cleveland, Ohio 44114 of a phone is shrill and irritating. But pleasantries. As I mentioned before, answer your other line/phone multiple the arrival of cell phones in recent years phone calls usually interrupt an activity – times for minutes at a time. has taken the potential for “ring rage” to I am a very busy, important person, you You may engage in activities like a whole new level. As the person being know. A proper salutation and exchange cooking, knitting, folding laundry ... any- An Invitation: phoned, it can be your own fault for of pleasantries gives me some time to thing that requires physical effort but no Literary Small Presses and Literary Magazines from Ohio are invited to choosing “Ice Ice Baby,” or you may be an focus on the phone call and prepare me mental engagement. You may not read a exhibit and sell their works. The film on native Clevelanders Jon and innocent bystander afflicted by J. Lo in for the conversation. book, watch a TV show (and tell me what tinny, cell speaker glory. Either way, the However, pleasantries can go wrong. I’ve happens), or play Typer Shark. Louise Webb will be shown at 7 pm followed by wine and cheese and ring sets the tone (couldn’t resist!) for the heard it happen, and it’s not pretty. They The sign-off. We’ve greeted, talk. Free and open to the public. For further information: next 10 to 200 minutes. can become over-extended, somersault- conversed, and are ready to get off the Contact: Larry Smith [email protected] or Bree [email protected] The salutation. A phone greet- ing into a conversation in and of them- phone. The best good-byes are short and ing should be subtle – boring, in fact. selves. Resist the urge to ask every polite sweet. “Talk to you later” is always ap- SPONSORED BY BOTTOM DOG PRESS/ GREENPANDA Stick with your basic “hi” or “how’s it question about a person’s well-being or propriate. You obviously have my phone PRESS/ AND DEEPCLEVELAND BOOKS/ INDEPENDENT going?” Don’t try to spice things up by state of mind; one or two will suffice. On number and/or I have yours and we’ve MIDWEST PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS CONSORTIUM. modulating your pitch or using popu- the other hand, a pleasant question de- made it through the conversations, so it’s Share work in the city of levy, Thompson, CSU lar expressions like “How’s it hangin’?” serves a pleasant (read short) answer. Ev- a pretty good bet that we will, indeed, talk Poetry Center, and others Join Us. or “Whasuuuuuuuuuuuuup.” (Okay, so erybody knows the person who actually again at a later point in time. those phrases are severely outdated, but I answers the initial “how’s it going” with There’s no need for words to don’t speak Britney, so sue me.) an in-depth self-psychoanalytical ab- come flowing out of your mouth and And for Bell’s sake, identify stract, and who uses it to launch into a over the phone lines in a rushing torrent, yourself. Serious pet peeve: “Hey, it’s discussion of the latest depressive episode about any last thoughts that may occur to 01 me.” I know I may come off as a curmud- and fear of where one’s life is heading. you. If we’ve been on the phone for a sig- 08 geonly hermit, but I do know more than Don’t be that guy. nificant amount of time, if it were really M two people. When I’m doing something The conversation. This element important you would have said it already. U S else and am interrupted by the phone can only be judged on an individual basis.