Issue 148
Summer & Fall 2015
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Issue 148 opens with Kelly Sears’ video essay “Pattern for Survival.” Sears juxtaposes militaristic, first aid, and fitness imagery with text from the US Army Survival Manual: “A key ingredient in any survival situation is the mental attitude of the individual(s) involved.” An ensemble of gifted authors study survival and the human experience throughout Issue 148. The fiction investigates characters’ mental attitudes when confronted with devastating circumstances. The poems examine snapshot-like moments imbued with both beauty and violence. The nonfiction observes life’s turning points and draws sense and order out of the small details of life. How do we survive being human? Through this mosaic of experiences, we begin to understand.
With Issue 148, we say good-bye and thank you to John Bresland, who inaugurated TQ's publication of video essays and cinepoems in Issue 141, and who has made TQ an important participant in that vibrant genre ever since. He's passing the torch to Kristen Radtke, whose "That Kind of Daughter" appeared in John's very first issue.
This summer, TriQuarterly began a complete upload of all 137 print issues of the magazine. Every cover and page of TQ’s entire history will soon be available to readers around the world. We are thrilled to share decades of ground-breaking fiction, nonfiction, and poetry without any cost to readers. Read our newest issue, or read our archive, but come on in and spend some time with TriQuarterly.
Cheers,
Adrienne Gunn
Managing Editor: Adrienne Gunn
Assistant Managing Editor: Noelle Havens
Faculty Advisor: Susan Harris
Director of Planning: Reginald Gibbons
Film Editor: John Bresland
Fiction Editors: Carrie Muehle, Ankur Thakkar, Stephanie Tran
Nonfiction Editor: Martha Holloway
Poetry Editor: Dane Hamann
Social Media Editor: Ankur Thakkar
Copy Editor: Lys Ann Weiss
Media Architect: Harlan Wallach
Technical Advisors: Alex Miner, Rodolfo Vieira, Nick Gertonson
Staff: Ahsan Awan, Emily Barton, Jen Companik, Aaron DeLee, Jesse Eagle, Jeshua Enriquez, Dan Fliegel, Ish Harris-Wolff, Alex Higley, Barbara Tsai Jones, Katharine Kruse, Jen Lawrence, Robin Morrissey, Marina Mularz, Troy Parks, Lydia Pudzianowski, Nate Renie, Mark Rentfro, Paula Root, Caitlin Sellnow, Michi Smith, Adam Talaski, Myra Thompson, Ted Wesenberg
Image from Pattern for Survival
Sarah and Alexander: The Big Man
Her friends leave her with the liquor bill. They’re off to catch a play she has already seen and did not like. They didn’t want to hear her review. (Sentimental claptrap.)
Of What Remains
In the end, we vote to keep the body in the living room. It is a matter of logistics: we cannot bury him because the soldiers are outside and they are digging up graves for sport; he cannot be cremated because Sharia forbids us to take fire to Allah’s creation.
The Last Bullet
Moving Off
The Huntsman delivers two quick notes on his horn releasing the hounds to pursue their quarry.
The Trouble began when Millicent Virginia Dunville failed to post for the 117th Annual Ladies’ Auxiliary Hunt Cup Tea.
Elena's World (excerpted from The Cuban Comedy; A Novel)
Elena’s world was divided into four parts. To the east were the mountains, where an endless war was raging. To the south spread a salt-encrusted marsh, thick with the refuse of the past.
Vanishing
Betsy Wainwright’s brain was shrinking. Had shrunk. There was no certain diagnosis, only an objectively shrinking brain, measurably smaller in circumference this year than last. Come and celebrate her fifty-first, Betsy’s husband Dan had said to Marty over the phone, at once jaunty and begging.
Mysteries of Women
It was late, and Mercale was drowsing through the conversation. Mexico. They were talking about Mexico, the western mountains, steep roads, isolated tribes of Indians. Richard slept in his truck, he said, the whole way.