A Slant of Light
by Abby Manzella
The afternoon sun creeps stealthily onto Dolores’s desk—an ephemeral cat. Its low, reserved angle brings to mind Emily Dickinson’s “There is a certain slant of light…” She recites it as she rested her pen, her voice breaking the stillness.
It has already been a long winter. She is tired of sweaters. She is exhausted by seeing her breath materialized like the ghost she feels herself to be.
In our weekend reading: new writing by Lydia Kiesling, revisiting a J Dilla album, and more.
In our afternoon reading: the music of Damon Locks, an interview with Sarah Gerard, and more.
In Italy they’re celebrating seven centuries of Dante ⎯ The Divine Comedy was finished in 1321, also the year Dante died ⎯ but I doubt anyone there has whipped up a carnival so wild as Dinty Moore’s. Long a champion of creative non-fiction, in this text he delivers what might be called “multi-media creative.” To Hell With It tosses together Moore’s hand-drawn cartoons and his old family photos, it toys with his Catholic-school catechism and meanders with him through the Midwestern flea markets, and the whole way, whatever the ostensible subject, it works canto by canto through Dante’s formidable opener to the Comedy, the Inferno.
In our morning reading: an excerpt from Sanjena Sathian’s new novel, lots of literary award winners, and more.
In our afternoon reading: “The Sympathizer” comes to TV, an interview with Kirstin Valdez Quade, and more.
HOMELESS is based out of New York City. He is the author This Hasn’t Been a Very Magical Journey so Far (Expat, 2018) and Please Buy This Book So I Can Feel Validated & (Finally) Love Myself (House of Vlad, 2019), and has the personality of a duct-taped Wiffle ball bat. His hobbies include staring into empty McDonald’s bags, blowing his nose into empty McDonald’s bags, and drawing on empty McDonald’s bags. Clash will be publishing his next book, Shithead Laureate, in 2021.
ALEXANDRA NAUGHTON is the author of a novel, American Mary (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016), and ten poetry collections, including a place a feeling something he said to you (Spooky Girlfriend Press, 2020), Rapid Transit (Nomadic Press, 2018), and You Could Never Objectify Me More Than I’ve Already Objectified Myself (Punk Hostage Press, 2015). Her work has appeared in Sporklet, Cosmonauts Avenue, Maudlin House, Witch Craft Magazine, Everyday Genius, Expat Lit, and elsewhere. Subscribe to her Substack at talkaboutit.substack.com.