The works of three Alaskans are featured within the latest “Alaska Quarterly Review,” including poets Sara Eliza Johnson of Fairbanks and Mistee St. Clair of Juneau.
The latest volume of “Alaska Quarterly Review” is, like those of its last 39 years, packed full of some of the most creative and powerful prose and poetry of its time. Its 10 short stories, eight narrative essays, and poems by 21 poets showcase a wide range of contemporary experiences and the talents that speak to them. The works of three Alaskans are included.
The short stories this time trend away from realism into speculative, futuristic and even horror genres while providing insight into current conditions, both tragic and absurd. In “Oil Boy” by Will Richter, a corporate lawyer for the oil sands industry narrates his life as he’s consumed, from his feet up, by a giant Indonesian python.
The personal essays tell true stories in impressively creative ways, mainly as hybrids that combine the personal with research-based nonfiction. “Mother Matter” by Miel Sloan consists of seven parts subtitled with the words that spell out “Matter can not be created or destroyed;” each part, in very short, often single, paragraphs queries the definitions of those words while telling the story of a mother trying to help her depressed, suicidal son.
Johnson is represented by two prose poems of beautiful imagery and ominous feeling. “At the End, There is Always a House” includes a speaker with a refrigerator crisper full of greens “turning to sludge, bananas on the counter blackening like frostbitten skin.” She follows with, “I used to quarter an apple with such perfection I could have been autopsying my own heart.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
New task force targets Alaskans who defrauded Covid-19 aid programsA special task force in Anchorage is targeting Covid-19 relief fraud said to run in the millions of dollars.
Read more »
Juneau lawmakers want more state aid for Alaskans hit by disastersBoth the Senate and House versions of the new bill would bump state disaster aid up to $50,000. Bills introduced by Sen. Jesse Kiehl and Rep. Andi Story would more than double the cap for disaster recovery grants and expand eligibility for condo owners.
Read more »
Proposal to define a fetus as a person in Alaska’s criminal code faces pushbackOpponents testified that the bill would threaten Alaskans’ abortion rights.
Read more »
New poll says Alaskans support ‘large’ education funding increase, child care bill, federal trawling banHalf favor a per-student increase of $680 or more, the same amount the House and Senate passed in recent weeks.
Read more »
EDITORIAL: Protecting Alaskans from eyes in the skyAlaska’s state Supreme Court justices are right, and their decision is prescient.
Read more »
The Girls On The Bus Producers Talk Adapting Political Book & Future Vampire Diaries StoriesThe novel's author co-created the show.
Read more »