An Interview with Meghan O’Rourke (poetry, ’05)

Aug 12, 2017

An interview with Meghan O'Rourke (poetry, '05) appears in The Kenyon Review:

. . . to read Meghan's poem, "Mistaken Self-Portrait as Mother of an Unmade Daughter," click here.

What was your original impetus for writing “Mistaken Self-Portrait as Mother of an Unmade Daughter”?

I knew I wanted to write a series of poems exploring a big question—the question of what it is to be a person, with an individual consciousness—from the perspective of wanting a child. It’s a very strange thing to bring a being into the world that has no choice in the matter. The longing for a child is rooted in so many discrete physical cravings—for the soft chubby hands of a baby on yours, for the nestling of small, warm, downy head, or for giggling high voices in the other room—but it’s a big existential longing, too. I was interested in writing about what to me are the major, metaphysical, raw questions involved in having children and being pregnant in particular—questions that I think are sometimes minimized in a culture that sentimentalizes child-bearing as a state where you wear white clothes and drink herbal tea and feel dreamy all the time.

. . . to finish reading this interview, click here.

 

Poet Meghan O'Rourke (poetry, '05)

MEGHAN O’ROURKE, a poet and essayist, is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Sun In Days. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Pushcart Prizes, she teaches in the writing programs at NYU and Princeton.

“The Kindly Ones” and “Theme in Red” by Maya Phillips (poetry, ’17)

Aug 11, 2017

Poet Maya Phillips (poetry, ’17)

Two poems with audio from alumna Maya Phillips (poetry, ’17) appear in Anomaly 25:

For audio of “The Kindly Ones,” click here.

The Kindly Ones

We at – are interested in taking care of
your real estate needs [we can take this
from you] and it has come to our attention
that, as administrator of the estate of –

[who? will you know him even now?],
you may now be in ownership [you, kin
of your father, in whose image – ?

. . . continue reading here.

. . . for “Theme and Red” and accompanying audio, click here.

“Sisters in the Woods” by Avra Elliott (fiction, ’15)

Aug 2, 2017

A story by Avra Elliott (fiction, ’15) appears in Sweet Tree Review:

Sisters in the Woods

The year she would turn thirteen, Cassie’s parents sat her down to announce their divorce. Her father handed her a Fudgsicle, as though that might soften the news that he was gay and leaving New Mexico to live in New Jersey. He rubbed his nub of a goatee and said, “I’ve always wanted to see the Stone Pony.”

School had let out the day before, and Cassie had been looking forward to weeks of swimming in their small, above ground pool. Instead Cassie rode shotgun beside her mother—who seemed to think imminent abandonment demoted Cassie’s father to the backseat—and dropped her father at the bus station.