First, sacrifice is the key to artistic growth in Grant Snider’s “Creative Processor.”
And in the Saturday Essay, Amanda Miska realizes she is making the object of her love into a “myth,” into “the version of the story that [she] wanted to believe.” Framed by the constant presence of social media, Miska analyzes the motivation behind Internet “stalking”—the desire to win. She writes of past lovers:
“We see their Twitter feeds as lines of dialogue, their Instagram photos as setting, their Facebook connections or passive-aggressive status updates as the plot lines.”
Meanwhile, the fantastic and the real blur together in Jeannine Hall Gailey’s fourth poetry collection, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter. “The poems that make up this collection,” writes reviewer Mary McMyne, “move in a controlled way between fact and fiction, autobiography and fantasy…” The mysterious Oak Ridge Valley nuclear facility serves as the setting in this “haunting” and “masterful” collection.
Lastly, in the Sunday Essay, David L. Ulin investigates the act of “falling,” both as mistake and intention, though he admits he is “only looking to remain upright.” The word connotes “beauty,” “symmetry,” sinfulness and violence, all at once. Falling is terrifying, but it also impels Ulin to reconnect with the present moment.
