Issue 144

Summer & Fall 2013

  • Next time you see us, things won’t be the same. Our next issue, due to launch in January 2014, will feature an entirely redesigned website that we absolutely cannot wait to share with you. But enough about the future. Let's talk about the present.

    Issue 144, our largest online issue to date, is filled with content from emerging and established writers alike. In this issue you’ll find new poems from Marianne Boruch, Kate Braverman, and Stephen Dunn, and potent doses of Americana from Brian Oliu, Annick Smith, and Ron Carlson. We are proud to feature essays from Nicole Walker and Jewell Washington, who celebrates her first major journal publication, and excerpts from forthcoming novels by Juan Martinez and Katharine Beutner. This issue also features another fine series of haunting video essays and cinepoems curated by John Bresland.

    A sincere thank you must be given to our dedicated staff of creative writing graduate students and faculty. Issue after issue, they enthusiastically donate their time, energy, and expertise to the journal. They do this not for salaries and perks, but for a passion of the written word and a true appreciation of the TriQuarterly tradition.

    When TQ abandoned print to exist exclusively online, we were written off by some in the literary community who suggested “the party was over.” We are happy to report that the party is not over. The poems, stories, and essays (and now video essays and cinepoems) published in TriQuarterly continue to resonate with readers around the world. And, given worldwide electronic access, we can honestly boast our largest readership in the history of the journal. With a complete website redesign on the horizon, the party is just getting started. It goes without saying that digital literature is here to stay. But for those who remain skeptical, I implore you to consider the Internet as a way to access some of the brightest voices in contemporary writing. Great literature is not only a physical thing; it is not something that needs to be shelved like bowling trophies or souvenirs from that family trip to Dollywood. Literature remains the art of all written work, regardless of how or where those writings are experienced.

    Since 1964—because of the passion and dedication put forth by past editors Charles Newman, Elliott Anderson, Reginald Gibbons, and Susan Hahn—TriQuarterly has been instrumental in defining the landscape of American literature and beyond. As a result, back issues of the print edition are becoming increasingly rare. Efforts are already underway to digitize our vast archives in order to revive and maintain the rich, ever-important history of TriQuarterly.

    As always, thanks for reading, and we welcome feedback at triquarterly@northwestern.edu

    Cheers,

    Matt Carmichael



    Managing Editor: Matt Carmichael
    Assistant Managing Editor: Dan Schuld
    Faculty Advisors: Alice George, Susan Harris
    Literary Editor: S.L. Wisenberg
    Film Editor: John Bresland
    Director of Planning: Reginald Gibbons
    Media Architect: Harlan Wallach
    Technical Advisors: Alex Miner, Rodolfo Vieira, Nick Gertonson
    Copy Editor: Ruth Goring
    Graduate Fellow: Benjamin Schacht
    Undergraduate Intern: Erik Tormoen

    Book Review Editors: Amber Peckham, Matt Wood
    Fiction Editors: Carrie Muehle, Dan Schuld, Ankur Thakkar, Stephanie Tran
    Nonfiction Editor: Michelle Cabral
    Poetry Editor: C. Russell Price

    Staff: Ignatius Aloysius, Rebecca Bald, James Temple Berg, Patrick Bernhard, Jen Companik, Tyler Day, Aaron DeLee, Vincent Francone, Dane Hamann, Ish Harris-Wolff, Noelle Havens, Beth Herbert, Alex Higley, Sarah Hollenbeck, Nath Jones, Jen Lawrence, Patrick LeDuc, Mercedes Lucero, Troy Parks, Lydia Pudzianowski, Lana Rakhman, Nate Renie, Mark Rentfro, Paula Root, Tara Scannell, Maureen Searcy, Caitlin Sellnow, Michi Smith, Virginia Smith, Travis Steele, Megan Marie Sullivan, Myra Thompson, Karen Zemanick, Ben Zimmerman

Image from When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl

Fiction Chinelo Okparanta Fiction Chinelo Okparanta

Contamination

Nkiru entered with the flowers. She set them down on the kitchen counter. They were young roses, petals on the verge of blooming, but suddenly it seemed to her that they smelled rank, like old stems in stale water.

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