A wailing begins at the registration window, a high-pitched adult voice, male, the elemental timbre an unmistakable keening of fear and pain. Even before I see him, I think of the purity of a baby’s cry and, also, that it is unfair to compare a man to a baby. I think too how rare it …
I accept the position in spring. When they call, they tell me I was the unanimous vote. It was you or no one, the department chair says. And no one didn’t want the position, she adds, and laughs. Okay, I say, then sign the papers, graduate with my doctorate, move across the country. Okay, I …
Congratulations to Ana Blandiana, a Romanian poet whose poems (translated by Viorica Patea and Paul Scott Derrick) appeared in our Issue 10.2—she’s won the very prestigious Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust. The prize, which in the past has been awarded to Frank Bidart, Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, Tomas Tranströmer, and Derek Walcott, “pay[s] …
We’re very sorry to announce the death of one of our contributors, Naira Kuzmich, whose essay “Dances for Armenian Women” appeared in Issue 13.2 about this time last year. (Read an excerpt below.) Naira was born in Armenia and raised in the Los Angeles enclave of Little Armenia. Her fiction and nonfiction appeared in journals …
Assistant Editor Molly Reid: Michael Alessi’s “A Small, Silent Assurance” raises more questions than it answers—what happened to this marriage? What is the nature of this man’s condition? And those poor turtles, why???—but these questions lead us on a treasure hunt that rewards with strange, surprising images (“a snake’s nest of stethoscopes,” hands “skittering …
Assistant Editor Molly Reid: Halloween is upon us. The time for pumpkin-carving, haunted houses, and candy. For young and old to dress up in costumes, try on other identities, inhabit the unknown, the sexy, the scary (or, sometimes, the downright terrible). It is also the time for that other Halloween favorite: the telling of ghost …
Assistant Editor Caitlin Doyle: Jess Smith’s “Path of Totality” presents us with a moving, complex, and multilayered exploration of what it means to see and be seen. After viewing the solar eclipse, the poem’s speaker reflects on her absentee father (“My father lives near here / I’ve heard, alone, in a cave or a …
“I’d like to see The Cincinnati Review become one of the leading journals in the country to publish edgy, innovative, truly groundbreaking literary nonfiction.” These are the words of our Literary Nonfiction Editor Kristen Iversen, whose ambitious editorial mission guides our reading process here at The Cincinnati Review. We’ve been expanding our focus …
Associate Editor James Ellenberger: Traci Brimhall’s “Heart Ghazal: An Essay” takes the signature move of the ghazal (the Radif, repetition) and gives it some room to breathe. This allows Traci to expand the (stetho)scope of the piece while still maintaining the Radif’s pounding inevitability. We get animal hearts and ghost hearts, hearts in their bodies …
Assistant Editor Molly Reid: Yxta Maya Murray’s story “YouTube Comment 2 to Video of I Like America and America Likes Me by Joseph Beuys,” forthcoming in issue 14.2, straddles forms and categories. The basic conceit—a comment on YouTube—is perhaps the one that disintegrates the easiest. This is not to say that it doesn’t do any …
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