‘I Crave a Dialogue’: A Conversation with Christopher McCurry
INTERVIEW By NETTIE FARRIS Christopher McCurry has been writing seriously for five years. He enthusiastically credits his mentor, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer,
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Blogs
Now Available: The 2015 New Southerner Literary Edition in print
This print edition features the 2015 New Southerner Literary Contest finalists and semifinalists, including the winner of the James Baker
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Ryan Case’s art inspired by Gonzo culture, writings of H.P. Lovecraft
Top: “H.P. Lovecraft” Ryan Case is a self-taught artist who works mainly in acrylic, ink, and watercolor paint. He has also
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Through stories and food, Zaring’s ‘Flavors from Home’ shows common bonds among people of all races, cultures
“Flavors from Home evolved out of my wish to share some delicious, unique ethnic recipes and to document what I had experienced during the potlucks at the school where I taught English to refugees. At these potlucks, people from all different races, faiths, nationalities, ethnicities, and social statuses gathered together around food, and I witnessed firsthand the melting away of all the outward and superficial barriers that tend to divide people.” -Aimee Zaring
Read moreReckoning These Ruins: White Silence, White Structure, and Regard for Black Lives
Far too many black lives have been violently disregarded, murderously disregarded, by the white structure. As a white man, I have nothing to add, nothing to write, to make the truth of this any stronger. I can say, however, that I am listening to that truth as so many have expressed it. I can say that I am trying to learn from such listening, to act upon such learning. I can say, as one who has been absorbed by the structure, as one who has been assumed content to be part of the structure, as one who once was content to be part of the structure because I was unaware of it and didn’t need to be aware of it, as one who has benefited from the structure, as one whose silence the structure welcomes and upon whose silence the structure depends, as one who looks like the structure and is expected to carry on the legacy of the structure, as one who could fade into the structure—I can say that this structure is really a ruin.
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Float On: Keeping My Head above Water at Forecastle
Through the festival gates, rough waters lay ahead of me. The port-a-potty was more like a THC sauna, as I must’ve slipped in right after a patron who hot-boxed a doob. From the smell of it, Louisville seemed to be chiefing on dirt weed, but every once in a while, it reeked like I was on a Bullitt County back road and somebody had trampled a skunk. It may be hard for a person without the addict gene to comprehend, but one drink or drug can send a person such as myself on a wild spree where by the end of the night, I’ll be saying, “I must’ve taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.”
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Judges announced for 2015 contest
The 2015 New Southerner Literary Contest opens August 1 and runs through September 30. In addition to publication in the
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Why I Garden: I hate getting started, but dirty nails fit me, and the sight of new vegetables make me weep
I moan over the prospect of starting seedlings or prepping the ground. In fact, this is why I started “The Lazy Gardener” column a few years back, to share—or should I say reveal?—my most private vegetable-growing secrets: that I’m a wimp when it comes to weeding; that I surrender at the first sign of aphids, blame the weather or the wildlife for my unsuccessful yields; that my garden would not be possible without someone else’s prodding.
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