Author: Superstition Review

Contributor Update: Marcia Aldrich

Contributor Update: Marcia Aldrich

Superstition Review

Congratulations to SR Contributor Marcia Aldrich on her forthcoming essay collection Studio of the Voice, coming out in February 2024.

In her essay collection, Aldrich invites readers on a journey of personal exploration of women’s lives, discussing themes such as the complicated love of mothers for daughters and daughters for mothers, slinky blue dresses and sultry red lipstick, Hollywood beauties and the stories we tell about them, the losses and treasures of getting older, her lifelong swim, and much more. The essays speak in a voice that is uniquely hers: revealing, comic, elegiac, perceptive, and wise. Each essay takes on dazzling form; some as shape-shifters, some fragmented and experimental, others in the classic mode–each of them to be discovered, savored, and shared.

Award-winning Aldrich has received significant praise for her newest essay collection.

“Essaying is the best way to freeze and examine and better understand the shifting phantasmagoria of our experiences in families and societies, and Marcia Aldrich’s Studio of the Voice is a whole collection of essays par excellence. With an eager, associative mind, Aldrich gathers and explores intergenerational conflicts and conundrums, generating meditative momentum toward a new vision of how we should, and can, relate to one another.” —Patrick Madden, author of Disparates: Essays

“In Studio of the Voice, Marcia Aldrich creates a studio of the voice-driven essay. Endlessly curious, digressive, formally inventive, these essays shine a light on an essential quality of the essay: it’s not about the epiphany, but process, the questions one asks. Long one of our very best essayists, Aldrich is undaunted at the dark door of the multifaceted truths self-investigation can yield, though sometimes, surprisingly, it is only the door that is dark. One essay by Marcia Aldrich is a cause for celebration. This rangy new book should provoke a parade. A signal achievement, Studio of the Voice is an essential book of essays.” —David Lazar, author of Celeste Holm Syndrome and founding editor of Hotel Amerika

“No writer evokes the way Marcia Aldrich evokes. For every scene she writes, story she tells, detail she describes, she palpates the imagination. This book is physicality incarnate. I can feel her hands as they clutch a bedpost, soothe a cheek slap, twist the chain of a pair of smudged reading glasses hanging around the neck, warm with a flash of menopause, rub the arch of Marilyn Monroe’s foot, burnish beauty, weigh the heaviness of rejection, thrill at the joy of a backflip, and press through dark water with the joy of swimming. Studio of the Voice maintains that we are most human when we are most embodied. Aldrich makes us feel fully human as she gives voice to her own body and the bodies of others in this vibrantly corporeal book.” —Nicole Walker, author of Processed Meat: Essays on Food, Flesh, and Navigating Disaster

In addition to Studio of the Voice, Aldrich also recently wrote “My First Old Person” on Oldster. Additionally, “In My Head: Tinnitus” was nominated for Best of the Net 2023.

Marcia Aldrich is the author of Girl Rearing, Companion to an Untold Story, Haze Underway, Waveform, and Edge. Her writing has received awards such as the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction. View more of Marcia’s work on her website, where you can also view how to order Studio of the Voice.

View Marcia Aldrich’s “The Year in Review” in issue 23 of Superstition Review.

Bill Gaythwaite’s Underburn

Bill Gaythwaite’s Underburn

Superstition Review

Congratulations to SR contributor Bill Gaythwaite on his debut novel, Underburn.

Underburn explores the emotional vicissitudes of a family in flux while introducing endearing and irresistible characters. The story follows Iris Flynn, an acerbic self-sufficient seventy-three-year-old widow with a minor Hollywood career in her past and some streamlined kitchen cabinets inspired by Marie Kondo. Her composed and simplified existence is disrupted when her son Frank lands on her doorstep after his rental home is destroyed in a wildfire, the latest in a string of personal setbacks in his life. He arrives with Logan, his twenty-five-year-old “startlingly handsome” boyfriend, a featured extra on a teen soap opera with a loyal Instagram following. Soon, news from Iris’ estranged family in Maine forces everyone out of their comfort zone. Iris convinces Frank and Logan to travel with her to the potato farm which she made a quick getaway fifty years earlier, unleashing a funny and poignant family saga about secrets, forgiveness, and the fluctuations of the human heart.

The book has received significant praise:

“A quirky family story told with wit and wisdom, with shades of Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Strout.” — Kirkus Reviews 

“A wonderfully engaging tale of both family and the underside of fame, Bill Gaythwaite’s debut novel Underburn mirrors the deceptive richness of the very generational ties it so charmingly explores: the long memories, conflicts big and small, surprisingly pivotal moments, and rediscovered bonds. One rarely encounters characters drawn with such candor, warmth, and humanity: you will gladly cheer and care for everyone as they seek to make peace with the past, while risking it all for a brand-new future.” —Natalie Jenner, author of the international bestseller The Jane Austen Society

“A poignant, funny, and timely family drama following the often-twisted paths we navigate toward understanding, reconciliation, and forgiveness.” —Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men

“A witty, heartfelt novel with endearing, imperfect characters who are impossible to resist, a deft examination of a family in flux.” —Kristyn Kusek Lewis, contributing books editor, Real Simple

Learn more about Bill at his website. Preorder the hardcover of Underburn here.

Bill Gaythwaite is an established writer whose short fiction has appeared in Subtropics, Chicago Quarterly Review, Puerto Del Sol, december, Solstice, and many other publications. Gaythwaite’s work can also be found in the anthologies Mudville Diaries: A Book of Baseball Memories and Hashtag Queer: LGBTQ+ Creative Anthology, vols. 1 and 2. Gaythwaite has worked at Columbia University since 2006, where he was on the staff of the Committee on Asia and the Middle East. He is currently the Assistant Director of Special Populations at Columbia Law School. Gaythwaite grew up in Boston and raised his son in New York City and its suburbs. An avid swimmer, movie aficionado, and football fan, he lives in New Jersey with his partner, Tom. He has been writing stories since he was six years old. Underburn is Gaythwaite’s debut novel.

View “Dear Coach Carl” in issue 14 of Superstition Review or read Gaythwaite’s guest posts on the Superstition Review blog.

Meet the Interns, Continued

Superstition Review

This semester, Superstition Review is highlighting the Editors producing Issue 32. On Dec. 1st, readers will be able to view content that these interns have worked to compile over the course of the semester.

Meet Nataley Walker, issue 32 advertising coordinator

SR: What are your plans for after graduation?
NW: After graduation, I plan to pursue my passion for writing as well as a career in editing.

SR: What are some of your hobbies?
NW: I love writing, reading, drawing and playing instruments (flute, piccolo, tenor sax, piano and more). I also love spending time with my family, and it’s so much fun going rock climbing, bouldering and paddleboarding with my siblings.

Meet Greg Richardson, issue 32 nonfiction editor

SR: What are you currently reading?
GR: A lot. But I’m currently working on “Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult” by Maria Bamford.

SR: What is your hidden talent?
GR: I’m a decent roller skater.

SR: What are some of your hobbies?
GR: Cooking, working out and seeing the libraries of the world.

SR: Describe your perfect Saturday morning
GR: Coffee, a bowl of cocoa puffs and a SpongeBob marathon.

Meet Antonio Folcarelli, issue 32 fiction editor

SR: What are your plans for after graduation?
AF: I plan on attending graduate school and becoming a creative writing professor.

SR: What are you currently reading?
AF: “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.

SR: What are some of your hobbies?
AF: Tabletop games (e.g. D&D), cooking breakfast and collecting used books.

Meet Bryan Lurito, issue 32 nonfiction editor

SR: What are your plans for after graduation?
BL: Editing for a publication company.

SR: What are you currently reading?
BL: “Dog is Love” by Clive Wynne

SR: What is one place you’d like to travel to?
BL: The Great Barrier Reef.

Be sure to read Issue 32 of Superstition Review launching December 1.

Perishable by Stelios Mormoris

Perishable by Stelios Mormoris

Superstition Review

Stelios Mormoris has a forthcoming poetry collection, Perishable, which will soon be published from Tupelo Press.

Mormoris’ first book, The Oculus, received generous praise from established voices. Award-winning poet Donald Revell says of The Oculus, “Like memory, sunlight itself is both elusive and overwhelming. We live and we compose our lives in the interstices, in gaps both riven and secured by Vision. In The Oculus, Mormoris bodies forth a vivid myth of the interstices, bathed in sunlight, swathed in shadow … Here are poems of serenity in turbulence, dearly welcome now.” Other literary voices such as Kylie Minogue, Christine Kondoleon, Renée Fleming, Courtney Love Cobain, and Dan Beachy-Quick praised the book.

Poet and NEA fellow Emma Bolden observes, “As the title suggests, Stelios Mormoris’ The Oculus offers the reader a lush and vibrant view of the world. Mormoris’ view is expansive, revealing the gorgeous, rich vistas that surround us all in daily life. In these beautifully constructed poems, the humble objects of everyday life—‘tournedos of barley,’ ‘the fresh mint on a wet green melon’—become divine, while the divine is humbled and humanized. More than flight, what Icarus remembers is his ‘cat purring in a stand of reeds, my father sleeping with his hands on his face.’ Mormoris reminds us of how ‘necessary it is to lose yourself in tangles,’ in the beauty that surrounds us, no matter where we look.”

Stelios Mormoris is a widely published poet, author, and CEO of SCENT BEAUTY, Inc. A dual citizen of Greece and the United States, Mormoris was born in New York and spent most of his life living in Paris. He has held positions on the Boards of the French Cultural Center of Boston, New England, The Fragrance Foundation, SYMRISE, ACT-UP, and is a member of Kytherian Society of Greece.

Order a copy of The Oculus here. Keep up to date with Mormoris’ work and the upcoming publishing of Perishable here.

Spring Fever by Thomas Legendre

Spring Fever by Thomas Legendre

Superstition Review

Thomas Legendre recently published Spring Fever, a quantum romantic techno-thriller novel with a literary sensibility.

The book is set in London and Nottingham and follows Amanda Nigh, an employee of HocusLocus who recrafts digital content with viral potential while beta-testing radical new software and enjoying London nightlife. But, she discovers a strange story involving American ice hockey player Craig Merleau, who talks like a European philosopher, inexplicably propelling his team to victory with his cerebral pronouncements. All the while, the world is threatened by a subatomic virus that affects computers and humans in bizarre ways. While global networks run awry and everyone struggles with quantum superposition and gravity quakes, Amanda and Craig remain blissfully untouched and attempt to avert technological and biological Armageddon.

“Strangely enough, I started writing Spring Fever before COVID-19, mainly as a way of addressing the rift or gap between our everyday experience and the imperceptible world described by quantum physics, which in some ways corresponds to the gap between appearance and reality that underlies so much of social media. This really was a vexation of mine. I’m not normal. But then of course the pandemic had a huge effect. Suddenly my research on viruses and related issues was in the mainstream and I could draw from the daily news instead of articles on JSTOR. And social media went absolutely bonkers with everyone trapped at home. It was eerie in many ways, a bit like writing about a naval disaster a few months before the Titanic,” Legendre told Jamie McGarry of Valley Press.

Thomas Legendre is a fiction writer, with published works including Keeping Time, The Burning (longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Writing) and Double Jeopardy. He has also written Half Life, a play performed as part of NVA’s art installation in conjunction with the National Theatre of Scotland, and a radio drama entitled Dream Repair for BBC4. He is an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham.

Spring Fever is available from Valley Press. Visit Legendre’s YouTube channel to hear readings of different excerpt from Spring Fever. Read more about Thomas Legendre here.

A headshot of Jenny Wu

Jenny Wu’s Continued Success

Superstition Review

Congratulations to SR Contributor Jenny Wu on her various exhibitions and projects!

This fall, Jenny is holding a solo exhibition: Otherly. Otherly includes abstract sculptural paintings by Jenny Wu. The exhibition title, referring to the state of being something else, embodies many facets of Wu’s work. As physical objects, they expand the traditional limitations of painting as two-dimensional, resulting in a novel medium that defies categorization. As visual images, her work is alternately reminiscent of op art, colorfield painting, landscape imagery, quilt making, or weaving, yet it is none of these. Thematically, Wu’s titles allude to notions of otherness, due to ethnicity, political differences, or personal histories.

Wu transforms paint from a flat medium to a palpable, malleable material. She pours paint, slices through its layers, and then manipulates these cross-sections to create sculptural compositions on wood panels. Once sealed within a thick, smooth resin coating, they call to mind a timeless permanence.

Wu’s use of paint layers stems from intriguing personal experiences. These include the adding and scraping away layers of paint while making traditional landscape painting a decade ago. The layers upon layers of posters she saw while visiting Rome also inform the process. The work also comments on the increasing use of technology in understanding art, where x-rays routinely expose under paintings and sketches in long-studied paintings. Wu exposes every step and layer of her creative process, but without technology and while rendering the original poured painting unrecognizable. The resulting patterns display repeated but subtly changing timelines of her process, measuring change and progress over time and coalescing into new, cohesive wholes.

The exhibition will be held September 25 – October 23, 2023 at the Widener Gallery, Austin Arts Center. Trinity College, 300 Summit St, Hartford, CT. Gallery hours are Mon-Fri 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sat. 1-5 p.m.

Wu in attendance at Bowery’s Gallery’s Juried Competition with Teresa Jade Jarzynski

This summer was full of excitement for Jenny. She attended Bowery’s Gallery’s 32nd Annual Juried Competition, juried by David Cohen, alongside her friend Teresa Jade Jarzynski, whose painting was featured in the show. Additionally, Elephant Exchange or Whatever, a latex paint and resin on wood panel work, was selected by Lauren Nye to be part of Adams Count Arts Council’s 19th Annual Juried Art Exhibition. It was on display at the Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College and it won best of show. Jenny also recently became president for Touchstone Foundation for The Arts (TFA), a nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization created by the artists of Touchstone Gallery to increase their engagement with the community around them.

Jenny’s latex paint and resin on wood panel work Magically Found $768,000,000,000 was acquired by University of Maryland, College Park through its Contemporary Art Purchasing Program (CAPP). The work will be on view through Sept. 30, 2023 in What We Do After: CAPP New Arrivals 2023, at the University of Maryland’s Stamp Gallery. The exhibition will also feature work from six other artists.

Jenny also has many upcoming projects.

From Sept. 5-Oct. 12, 2023, Jenny will be featured at the 45th Harper College National Juried Exhibition; Harper College, Palatine IL. From Sept. 1-30, 2023, Jenny will be showcased at CT Women Artists 2023 National Open Juried Show, Barnes-Franklin Gallery; Tunxis Community College, Farmington, CT.

On Feb. 17, 2024, Jenny will co-present Pedagogy and Community at the CAA annual conference in Chicago. She also has another solo exhibition It Depends with Morton Fine Art in Feb., 2024. The reception for the exhibition is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 24, 2-4 p.m.

We are so proud of Jenny and all that she is up to.

View 5 paintings by Jenny in issue 30 of Superstition Review.

Learn more about Jenny and her upcoming events here.

Brandel France De Bravo’s Locomotive Cathedral

Brandel France De Bravo’s Locomotive Cathedral

Superstition Review

Congratulations to SR Contributor Brandel France De Bravo on her upcoming book.

Bravo’s collection of poems, Locomotive Cathedral, was chosen for honorable mention and a $1,000 prize in the Backwaters Press Prize in Poetry contest—an imprint of the University of Nebraska. The collection will be published in early 2025.

Contest judge Hilda Raz, editor of the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series at the University of New Mexico Press, commented on Locomotive Cathedral, “I was delighted by the wit of the speaker, her refusal to be downed by the isolation and grief caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as drug and AIDs deaths she remembers, and cancer.”

“I am thrilled to be joining the Backwaters Press and University of Nebraska family!” said France de Bravo. “Transformation is a recurring theme in Locomotive Cathedral. I’m delighted that these poems, which explore the very human desire for permanence and control in a world of ceaseless flux, spoke to judge Hilda Raz.” 

This year, Brandel also had the opportunity to serve as a contemplative coach to a Dalai Lama Fellow.

A second-generation Washingtonian, Brandel has served on the Board of PEN Mexico for three years and serves on the Board of the National Center for Health Research. She is a mentor through the Mexican nonprofit Jovenes Adelante and a certified instructor of Compassion Cultivation Training. A poet, author of numerous nonfiction pieces and essays, and translator, Brandel is the author of Mother, Loose (Accents Publishing) and Provenance (Washington Writers’ Publishing House). Her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Conduit, Diode, and elsewhere.

View Brandel’s poem in issue 29 of Superstition Review. Learn more about Brandel here.

Superstition Review’s Blog is Now Accepting Submissions

Superstition Review’s Blog is Now Accepting Submissions

Superstition Review

While submissions for issue 32 are closed, Superstition Review’s blog is actively accepting submissions.

Superstition Review features Guest Posts and Authors Talks on the blog. These can be short essays, videos or audio recordings that examine current literary topics and trends. Please review the Guest Posts category and the Authors Talk category for reference prior to submitting.

We do not publish poetry or short stories on our blog. We do not accept submissions from ASU undergraduate students.

Read submission guidelines and submit your work here. Read more of Superstition Review or previous blog posts.

Literary Happenings at ASU this October

Literary Happenings at ASU this October

Superstition Review

The Department of English at Arizona State University is putting on a series of informative and educational events this October. Take a look at some of the happenings on campus:

John Plotz – ‘We Have Always Been Posthuman: Speculative Satire before Science Fiction’ | October 2nd

Come to the annual Ian Fletcher Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Department of English in honor of Professor Ian Fletcher (1920-1988). This year’s lecture will be delivered by John Plotz, the Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandies University and co-host of Recall This Book podcast. His research interests are in nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature, the novel, science fiction, and fantasy, and is the author of several related works including “The Crowd: British Literature and Public Politics” (2000), “Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move” (2017), and “My Reading: Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea'” (2023).

The event will take place in Ross-Blakley Hall (RBHL) room 196 on the Tempe Campus. Doors open at 4:45. The event begins at 5:15. Refreshments will be served. Learn more.

‘Flatland’ Book Club with John Plotz | October 2nd

Professor John Plotz will also be hosting a discussion of the nineteenth-century novel “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott.

The book club will take place in Ross-Blakley Hall (RBHL) room 324 on the Tempe Campus. The event will be held from 10:45 a.m.-noon. Please RVSP if you would like to attend this free event.

Echoes Seen: Collaborations in Image and Verse | September 14 – October 14

Supported by the Institute for Humanities Research, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, The Department of English and the School of Art; the graduate students and faculty of the MFA programs of Creative Writing and the School of Art at ASU present “Echoes Seen: Collaborations in Image and Verse.” The exhibition displays work across many mediums, varying from photography, drawing, clothing, ceramics, paper-mâché, video and sound installation, and range in subject matter from joy, collective mythology, personal history, cultural fragments and their assemblage, and the significance of artifacts. In this exhibition, the possibilities for new perspectives in artists’ craft through the lens of collaboration – in pleasurable submissions and active encounters with another’s imagination – is ultimately about forging new and radical relationships through art.

The exhibition is open from September 14 – October 14, 2023. The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. ; first and third Fridays, 6 to 9 p.m. Learn more.

Humanities Week | October 15-20th

From October 15-20, ASU will be hosting The College’s Humanities Week with over 20 in-person and virtual events. Learn more.

MFA Student Reading Series | October 20th

Presented by ASU’s Creative Writing Program, the event brings notable alumni authors to the ASU community for readings and discussions about their writing and literary works.

The event will take place at the Ellis-Shackelford House, 1242 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85004 from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

ASU Common Read: A Virtual Visit with Woo-kyoung Ahn | October 26th
ASU is excited to host Yale psychologist Woo-kyoung Ahn, author of “Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better,” for a virtual visit. Ahn will discuss “Thinking 101″—ASU’s Writing Programs selected Common Read for 2023-24—and answer questions from students and faculty.

The event will be held on Zoom from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. MST on Thursday, October 26, 2023. Learn more.

Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing: Distinguished Visiting Writers Series (DNRS) | October 27th

The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing holds a series of free events open to the public to ensure all individuals have the ability to participate in the literary arts. Visiting authors host small workshops in partnership with the Piper Writers Studio, engage in intimate craft talks with students, visit ASU classes, and participate in other meaningful activities.

This month, the Piper Center welcomes Eileen Myles and Jenny Irish. The event will feature a reading and conversation with two inimitable voices as they read their work and discuss poetry, life, love, gender and more.

About the authors:

Eileen Myles

Eileen Myles (they/them, b. 1949) is a poet, novelist and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has made them one of the most recognized writers of their generation. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 2022. A “working life,’ their newest collection of poems is out now. They live in New York & in Marfa, TX.

Jenny Irish

Jenny Irish is from Maine and lives in Arizona. She is the author of the hybrid collections Common Ancestor and Tooth Box, and the short story collection I Am Faithful. Her latest book is the poetry collection, Lupine. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Arizona State University.

Hear from these talented writers on Friday, October 27, 2023 from 6:30-8 p.m. MST.

The event will be held on the Tempe Campus in the Piper Writers House. RSVP to save your spot for this exciting literary event. Learn more.

Jenny Marie Day’s Upcoming Exhibitions

Jenny Marie Day’s Upcoming Exhibitions

Superstition Review

Congratulations to SR Contributor Jenny Marie Day on her assorted projects.

Jenny has upcoming solo exhibitions this winter featuring paintings and sculptures with Alabama Contemporary in Mobile, Alabama and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jenny also has recent and upcoming artist residencies with Greenwich House Pottery in New York City and Anderson Ranch in Aspen, Colorado.

Since 2022, Day’s work has also been included in solo and group exhibitions with Galerie Bengelstrater in Islehorn, Dusseldorf, and Cologne, Germany; Visons West in Denver, Colorado and Bozeman, Montana; William Havu Gallery in Colorado, Form and Concept in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and many other venues.

Day’s practice has expanded to new mediums, including acrylic on canvas paintings; ceramic; mixed media; and textile sculptures.

Jenny Day is a painter and sculptor based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She earned an MFA in Painting from the University of Arizona, a BFA in Painting from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz. Her exhibition record includes Arte Laguna in Venice, Italy; Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Korea; Museum of Art Fort Collins; Mesa Arts Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; Blue Star Contemporary Museum in San Antonio, TX; Alabama Contemporary in Mobile, AL; and Elmhurst Museum in Chicago, IL. Day’s work has been supported by an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, a Puffin Foundation Grant, a Contemporary Forum Artist Grant from the Phoenix Art Museum, a Barron Purchase Award and ongoing support from The Process Museum. Day has participated at Greenwich House Pottery, the Ucross Foundation, the Jentel Foundation, and the Playa Foundation For The Arts, among other artist residencies. Jenny Day is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana; Visions West in Denver, Colorado and Bozeman, Montana; and Galerie Bengelstrater in Dusseldorf, Germany. 

View Jenny’s paintings essays in issue 19 and issue 29 of Superstition Review and hear Jenny discuss her issue 19 paintings and artistic backgrounds in her feature on the Superstition Review blog’s Authors Talk series.

Jenny’s work can be purchased through Galerie Bengelsträter, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, or Visions West. Learn more about Jenny and her works here.