The Boulevard: Issue #9

Issue #9 of The Boulevard 

Spring-Summer 2013 Hawthorne Fellows.

Edited by Jennifer Lauck

 

Myocardial Infarction by Ellen Michaelson

"Sima searched the man’s neck for the Eastern Orthodox cross that would be a sure sign of his anti-Semitism. Slavic, Ukranian. Not one of her people. She felt for the gold six-pointed Jewish star under the edge of her scrub shirt. She had a deep urge to dangle the star before him, for him to know who had the upper hand here. Here, where a simple, uneducated Polish Jewish peasant like herself could become someone he could never harm and a black island woman’s touch held his life on the line."

 

I Ate My Children by Heide Island

 

“Who will care for you when you age?” “Don’t you worry about being alone?” “Who will you bequeath your legacy?” “Don’t you worry you will regret the decision?” Childfree websites and blogs refer to these questions as “Breeder Bingo.”

 

 

 

In Pursuit of Immortality by Nicole Hurley

"They got the German Shepherd after I left for college ten years ago.  They named him Isaac and referred to him as my brother.  He barked and wagged his entire backend with his tail.  Out of the car, he jumped and licked my face, I pushed him away with my hands, legs, and purse to protect myself from his large feet and wet tongue."

 

Xylo - Chapter 2 by Kirstin Fulton

The Xylo women warned not to go into the grove. They said it swallowed children into the soggy earth and spit them out as crooked trees with fearful faces burnt into the bark. If you weren’t absorbed, they said, the grove would play an endless game of shifting to close any path out again to the world. Eventually you would go mad.

The Road of Memories and Dreams by Sandra Pettigrew

Ian liked to joke that he was a Greek God, such was his confidence in himself and his near immortality.  Arms stretched wide to adventure, he had the wingspan of a condor.

 

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.