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Abstract: There comes a point in Lindsey Pharr’s essay “On Being Still and Knowing”—the lead piece of prose in this issue of Appalachian Review—where she muses about human nature. More specifically, where she recounts being “projected upon” and, in the process, subjected to all manner of abuse: just for being a woman with a voice, just for being a woman, just for being. “Projection,” she observes, “is a vital ingredient of cruelty—it’s a lot harder to treat someone badly if you actually see them as a human.” I’ve carried this thought with me over the past few weeks. I’ve considered how we have become increasingly conditioned to make dehumanizing projections through social media, which feels at once intimate and, because we ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: The annual Plattner Awards were established in 1995 by Kenneth and Elissa Plattner to honor their late son and his love of writing. The awards are given to the finest pieces of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry that appeared in Appalachian Review during the previous year. Winners receive a $200 prize, and both winners and honorable mentions are awarded a handsome piece of handmade ceramics designed and manufactured by Berea College Crafts. FICTIONWinner: Gavin Colton, “Little Piles of Change”Honorable Mention: Christopher Labaza, “Kingsnake”CREATIVE NONFICTIONWinner: Caroline McTeer, “Blue Ridge Bobby” Honorable Mentions: Rachel Kesselman, “Where Do You Come From'” and Quincy Gray McMichael, “Grasping at ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: The focal point of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting Pygmalion and Galatea (1890) is, undeniably, Galatea’s ass. It is this point on her body, just under those pert cheeks, to be exact, that her metamorphosis from cold white marble to warm, blushing flesh takes place. Standing on a platform in the middle of her creator’s studio, the statue-woman’s pose is full of tension, of muscular energy frozen in time. She leans over to kiss Pygmalion, who rises on his tiptoes to meet her. In the background floats an ephemeral Cupid on the brink of letting a love dart fly.The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea goes like this: Pygmalion was a sculptor in Cyprus who, having no interest in living, breathing women, sculpted his ideal of one ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Now that he was fifty-eight, Harvey could say that success was not a matter of vision or inspiration. Even hard work wouldn’t suffice. Success happened when you did what made sense. When you didn’t try to see too far into the future. Success involved a certain faith—that things would work out, particularly if you didn’t think too much about them. This faith was his strength. Other strengths: in the shop he was finicky about things getting put away (nothing got lost, the place was relatively clean), he spoke rapidly but not at length (people listened), he conferred with customers right there in the wide garage entrance, half in the sunny world of traffic and trees and half in the cool shade of the shop (he knew ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: You might / have your very own matching washer-and-dryer set at home / and never have need for this love song to the ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Joy and delight. These are two words—two concepts, two states of being, even—that Ross Gay wants his readers to know. In these uncertain times, as our society is increasingly bifurcated and antagonistic, he is insistent that our salvation lies in practicing these two mindsets by walking through the world with an observant reverence and what he calls “caretaking.” He describes the latter this way in The Book of Delights: Essays. “Holding open doors. Offering elbows at crosswalks. Letting someone else go first. Helping with heavy bags. Reaching what’s too high, or what’s been dropped. Pulling someone back to their feet. Stopping at the car wreck, at the struck dog.” This impulse, Gay believes, “is our default mode ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Sometime during that disorienting week between Christmas and New Year’s, my dad twisted himself around in his recliner so he could look at me. “Ashley' Why can’t you write stories like that'” As he asked his question, he gestured toward the television where the credits from yet another episode of a black and white western rolled across the screen. I sat in the corner of the couch, enjoying the beginning of a day visiting my family for the holidays and in which I had nothing planned. I needed a break; the year 2022 had been a whirlwind of many fun and exciting things, but also filled with a lot of writing and work. My dad never remembered what I wrote. He didn’t understand why I don’t write about him or why I have ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Kelly McQuain’s Scrape the Velvet From Your Antlers, composed in part from his two earlier chapbooks, Velvet Rodeo and Antlers, was chosen as the West Virginia selection for the TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Prize, and—kudos to the Texas Review Press—they have chosen a book unlimited by regional concern or scope and an author whose poems sing. In “Glass Frog,” the poet begins in describing the translucent skin of a species of frog in Central America, before speculating, by way of an anatomy kit the poet played with as child, what human beings would perceive had we this same feature:McQuain’s answer' “I’d like to think / we’d find eloquence...” In this movement—from nature’s oddity to the displayed human body ... Read More PubDate: 2024-05-14T00:00:00-05:00