Hef By Design

By Anne Hasenstab

Hawthorne Fellow 2012

Anne Hasenstab’s poetry has recently appeared in a handful of literary magazines including Sou’wester, The Naugatuck River Review, The Avatar Review and Cavalier Literary Couture. Anne earned an MFA from Fairfield University, is the Founding Editor of The Honey Land Review and is currently working on her first full-length poetry manuscript, Flock.

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Hef By Design

On Mildred Williams, lucky number one,

I fawned; a fallen man succumbed to love

and vows of wedded bliss. Before the bone

transformed me into dog. Before the crave

of bombshell blondes and hedonistic nights,

we had a love of simple purity,

curiously carnal, shameless, untaught.

The cat and mouse of her virginity,

the sweet unfurl of innocence and all

our fantasies of joy conceived in us.

But love’s an evil thing for which I fell,

her cheating left me starved and rancorous.

And so I welcomed Hef and stifled Hugh,

the cuckold playboy shamed by his first screw.

The Attic Experience

"I found the Attic fiction workshop allowed me to see the value and potential in every piece of writing submitted to the group. The atmosphere of the workshop was warm and respectful, but that level of professional courtesy never interfered with honest, well-constructed feedback. After their first round of Attic scrutiny, one of my own stories, "Address Book," underwent drastic changes as a result of feedback from the group, and it was accepted for publication soon after. I couldn't ask for better results."

Deborah Cravey

The Classic Book for Writers, Updated and Revised

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A Statement of Our Values

The Attic Institute of Arts and Letters opposes the legitimation of bigotry, hate, and misinformation. As a studio for writers, we do not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. We embrace and celebrate our shared pursuit of literature and languages as essential to crossing the boundaries of difference. To that end, we seek to maintain a creative environment in which every employee, faculty member, and student feels safe, respected, and comfortable — even while acknowledging that poems, stories, and essays delve into uncomfortable subjects. We accept the workshop as a place to question ourselves and to empathize with complex identities. We understand that to know the world is to write the world. Therefore, we reaffirm our commitment to literary pursuits and shared understanding by affirming diversity and open inquiry.