Perfect Little Examples of Well-Crafted Work
“I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.”
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
This quote acts as an epigraph the eighth issue of The Quotable, an issue dedicated to storytelling. True to its theme, the issue contains seven short stories, compared with just two essays. Several of the poems are narrative in structure. The journal also publishes artwork, and in this issue, that includes acrylic, photography, illustration and a comic strip.
The artists come from different parts of the world, including Italy and Denmark. Both women and men are represented about equally in this issue. But the writers do appear to mainly live in the northeast. There are freelancers and creative writing professors, emerging authors with no prior publications and writers with multiple books.
Most of the work published here is written in first person, which is interesting given that many journals and editors are increasingly moving away from this point of view. As a result much of the fiction feels autobiographical. But, this is not to say that the selection lacks variety. The writers are a good mix of those with substantial publications and first-time authors, and their styles vary too. The Submission guidelines ask for stories under 3000 words. I found the stories to be delightful with their distinctive voices and intriguing plots. They start out perfectly normal, and then transform into rich, complex studies of quirky characters.
For instance, in Alice Lesch Kelly’s story, “Good Girl,” the narrator starts out in a conspiratorial manner, telling us about her husband Eric and his suspicious ways. But soon, the story morphs into a paranoid, self-incriminating narration that is both unreliable and sympathetic. “Unbecoming” by Loretta McCormick is a wonderful story about the narrator’s mental instability and her idiosyncratic Mexican grandmother. Full of magic realism elements, it really becomes a story about “women who couldn’t control their magic or fate.”
Of course these are mostly stories about storytelling. In “Unbecoming,” the grandmother tells the narrator the story of how she escaped from Mexico and made her way to America. In “Her Epilogue,” suitably named by Jason Huff, physical scars tell the characters’ stories. “Story Night,” by Elizabeth Oliver (the only story told in the third person) is about a dead babysitter who used to tell stories to the young children in the town. In “Too Good Not To Be True,” by Peter Hajinian, an old Italian uncle tells a story of the best soup he ever ate and its mystery ingredient. In James Pouilliard’s “When Bruce Was Eaten By The Bear,” a young newsletter intern must unearth the story of what really happened to Bruce. Each of these stories maintain narrative momentum in order to entertain or share an experience with the reader and, in doing so, reveal fascinating characters.
The poems too are mostly first person and feel autobiographical as well as contemplative. A prominent exception is Changming Yuan’s very interesting “Egg * Poems: An English Languacultural History of China,” which explores clichéd cultural references from different historical periods of China.
Two of the most lyrical poems are “Brother” by Jenny Qi, where the speaker addresses the brother who died in a miscarriage, and “The Night My Father Died,” by Robert Walicki, a moving recollection of how the speaker and his family learned the news of his father’s death.
Also quite moving is the selection of nonfiction here. There are only two pieces, one of which is the flash essay, “The Trees Would Know” by Margaret Eaton. Interestingly, this dark, haunting, memoir essay is written in third person, unlike most of the fiction. The other essay, “Unburying,” by Bryce Emley is a poignant work addressing the father of a deceased friend.
Even though the theme of this issue is storytelling, the mood is reflective and elegiac rather than narrative. I found all the stories and essays to be perfect little examples of well-crafted work. They contain a formal simplicity and traditional structure that is very effective and disguises complexity of character and emotions.
Just like the content, the journal too looks slim and uncluttered, but disguises some excellent creative work. These are works that could be easily used in undergraduate creative writing classrooms as terrific lessons.
Submission Guidelines and monthly writing prompt contests can be found online at www.thequotablelit.com. The online edition also provides interviews with and blog posts by contributors, and a shop for literary apparel and merchandise.
