Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: In this story told in the imperative second-person point of view, reading is literally ingesting words and images, and a new reader moves from observation of nature to self-awareness and then to a sense that love itself is connected to the exchange of words. I love how reading is an embodied experience here, erasing the false dichotomy of mind and body.
To hear Nadia read the story, click here:
To All the Souls Who Can’t Yet Read
Believe your granddad when he jokes that only by eating words can you learn to read them. Open his National Geographic to test out sentences on your tongue. Turn to that mountain picture you like, and rip the description into pieces. Set the papers against the roof of your mouth as if they were caramel squares. Steel yourself: the ink will slick against your teeth, and the paper will thicken like mud. Whatever happens, don’t gag or your insides won’t absorb the words. Swallow the mountain page and feel it howling down your throat. Pretend that devouring these phrases—summit, sierra, feet above sea level—will cause you to swell up with boulders in your belly and valleys in your lungs. Picture yourself as a peak instead of a person. Flip back to the front cover and try to read the title. Don’t weep that you can’t yet understand it. Hunt for other words to consume—Post-it notes, prayer cards, bills, coupons, recipes, movie posters, birthday cards, bus tickets, anything you can find. Wolf it all down until your body has enough words to become a book of its own. Imagine what a love letter tastes like. Keep on chewing.
Nadia Born writes peculiar fiction, both literary and speculative. She won New Letters’s 2022 Editor’s Choice Award and has stories featured in Gulf Coast, Water~Stone Review, Arkansas International, MQR Mixtape, and elsewhere. She also has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction. Find her online at www.nadiaborn.com.
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