For Hedy

When we reunited at one of our residencies in Vermont, Hedy complimented my clothes, told me my style was becoming more sophisticated. It was a big deal, coming from her, with her fur coat and cat-eye sunglasses, the girl who used to roller-skate to work through the East Village, my own real-life Jackie O.

Then she said the only thing off was my footwear, my hippie Jesus sandals, a tragic remnant from my Nag Champa-scented undergrad days– “What are those, Naots?”

If it had come from anyone else, the comment would have stung for weeks. From Hedy, it was purely constructive: I savored it like one of her sweet-tart workshop critiques, the ones that whispered, I know you can do better.

She was right, they were Naots.

Lamination Colony

Liars’ League

Swink Magazine

[PANK] Magazine

Because you’re young

There’s a lot getting written about Cabin in the Woods and reality TV, and the Iraq War, and desensitization, and The Hunger Games parallels, but I find this angle to be a bit more incisive–

We millennials aren’t lazy or self-absorbed or over-educated or under-educated or over-privileged or under-privileged or angry or lethargic or LinkedIn or Facebooked. I mean, we are all of those things, but we’re much more besides. We’re citizens of a rapidly overpopulating, ecologically imploding globalized world, surrounded by repressive conventions and outmoded systems and vitriolic political debates and brutal conflicts and the very old and the very new and much, much, MUCH more information about all of these things than our parents could ever have imagined dealing with at our age. We’re looking for new and old ways to handle it all, and no one has any answers, because no one has ever lived the way we are living now.

So excuse us while we decide not to devote our lives to work without considering what kind of impact, violent or otherwise, that work is having, on our selves and on the world. Excuse us while we try and build our own temples and battle our own demons, instead of blindly sacrificing our blood for yours. And if you don’t excuse us, whatever, it’s cool, Joss Whedon does. He gets it. I think.

Print is not dead, yet

My first issue of Apalachee Review is now out in print. I’m particularly excited about the story “One Percent” by Ewa Bronowicz, which I had the privilege of discovering among the submissions. It’s a great issue, and you can obtain copies here–the info for Issue 62 should be up soon. We’re reading for 63 now, so dust off those SASEs.

Also, the first issue of Kudzu Review is now available in print, and I’m eagerly awaiting getting my hands on the hard copy. The second one will be out in June, and we’re currently reading for the Winter Solstice issue. Everyone on the editorial staff are eager to discover gems in their inbox, so if you want to send something to me directly, it’s powell at kudzureview dot com.

Now to harness all this inspiring generative energy and go write something new of my own…