New England Review

Stephen O’Connor, We Want So Much to Be Ourselves (Bellevue Literary Press) — published in NER 33.3 “Rich in fascinating historical detail, ideas, and psychological insight, O’Connor’s story brims with compassion, and sounds a warning siren.” —Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life Victoria Chang, Tree of Knowledge (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — published most recently in NER 45.3 “Incredible . . .

This spring Maya Hynes and Margaux Joly spent part of their Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in the New England Review office. They read paper submissions in all genres, performed their original writing for our annual NER Out Loud event, hosted a lively reading and open mic for fellow students, and much more. Here they interview each other for our “Meet the Interns” series. Where are you from? What brought you to Middlebury?

Our “Staging Style” craft essay series presents innovative writers, translators, and critics articulating the influences and impulses that have sharpened their thinking and writing minds. Below we answer frequently asked questions about this series. The submission guidelines state that you’re looking for essays “that trouble the conventional prescriptiveness of ‘craft.’” What do you mean by “trouble”?

Editorial intern Ruby Salisbury ’27 talks with former NER intern Robert Erickson ’18 about developing a critical vocabulary, adjusting to life post-Middlebury, and the value of humility. Ruby Salisbury: Where are you now, geographically and professionally? Robert Erickson: I moved to New York shortly after graduating from Middlebury—first to Brooklyn, then to Queens, where I live now. I’m currently a senior editor at The New Criterion, a monthly review of arts and letters based in Manhattan.

Fernando Pessoa translated by Patricio Ferrari & Margaret Jull Costa, The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis (New Directions) — Ferrari appeared in NER 46.1 “A rhapsodic collection of poems.

“Though ‘The Manifest’ is my poem of Idaho written in Idaho, someone else wrote Idaho long ago. Thus the eponymous poem is not only anonymous but an exquisite corpse, a shared writing of the world . . .” My poem from NER 47.1, “The Manifest,” is titled as such for the resonance of “manifest” in the imperial landgrabs of Manifest Destiny and the embedded sound of “manifestation,” an act (and not recounting) of making something. The title also carries the idea of “a manifest,” a list.

Staff reader Dana Lynch speaks with NER 47.1 writer Elizabeth Lee on untranslatable language, the parasocial nature of mukbangs, and crafting a self-conscious point of view in her story “AYCE.” Dana Lynch: Where are you in the world, and what does your writing life look like right now? Elizabeth Lee: In an oddly prophetic twist, I recently moved to the Seattle area, though at the time that I wrote this story I was still in the first year of my MFA at the University of Michigan.

Staff reader Thomas Nath talks with poet Ama Codjoe about intimacy, the potency of childhood, and the uses of memory in her sonnet sequence from NER 47.1. Thomas Nath: On a broad level, I’d love to hear how you see these four poems speaking to each other. Were there similar emotions or inspirations at play in their creation, or are there specific strands between one or more that were very present for you? Are they part of a larger project?

left to right: Katherine Ferrier, Susan Fritsch Hunter, Emily Lackey, J. T. Price, Isabelle Stillman, & Jeneva Burroughs Stone In celebration of Middlebury’s reunion weekend, New England Review will host a reading for five alumni authors on Saturday, June 6, at 1 PM in Axinn Center 229. Our featured readers are Susan Fritsch Hunter ’71, Jeneva Burroughs Stone ’86, Katherine Ferrier ’91, Jeffrey T. Price ’01, Emily K. Lackey ’06, and Isabelle Stillman ’16. This event is free and open to the public.

Staff reader Zara Karschay talks with writer José Orduña about ambiguity, refracting the immigrant experience, and the question of fate in his story “Night Blindness” from NER 47.1. Zara Karschay: “Night Blindness” opens with the young Marcos confronted with the gruesome sight of a corpse. What made you choose to start the story at this moment?