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Featured Writer #113: Katherine Vaz


 

 

Read an excerpt from Katherine Vaz's new novel Above the Salt plus an exclusive interview with the author.

 

Above the Salt (Flatiron Books/Macmillan, 2023) is based on the true story of the converts to Presbyterianism on the Portuguese island of Madeira who were violently driven into the sea. John Alves grew up in jail with his mother, Serafina, condemned to die for heresy (and later granted a reprieve). The following excerpt covers John’s passage from Trinidad to New York to the haven of Jacksonville and Springfield, Illinois, where he and his fellow exiles were adopted. John will court a fellow Madeiran, Mary Freitas, at the Lincoln household before betrayals and the Civil War upend the rest of their lives. Read the full excerpt and interview here!


 

An Interview with Anders Carlson-Wee


 

 

Tyler Robert Sheldon talks with Anders Carlson-Wee about Disease of Kings (October 2023). 

Read more...


 

Order Latest in Print: Spring/Summer 2023

Journal – No. 20

Fall/Winter 2013-14 – Vol. 10, No. 2

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Sample Spreads

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Contributors

2013 Literary Award Winners

Fiction: Caitlin O'Neil, "Change Over Day"
Poetry: R. A. Villanueva, "Aftermaths," "Sacrum"
Creative Nonfiction: Jessica Wilbanks, "On the Far Side of the Fire" 
Translation: Shen Wei, "A Dictionary of Xinjiang" translated by Eleanor Goodman
Runner-up, Poetry: Zoey Farber, "Three Expressions of El Tío", "Five Characteristics of the Genus Tragelaphus"
Runner-up, Translation: Krasimira Zafirova, "A Formula for Infinity," "Toast," "A Birthday Between Two Seas" translated by Olga Nicorova

Fiction

Robyn Joy Leff, "The Dilemma Olympics"
Amelia Gray, "Precious Katherine"
Robyn Carter, "The Instructor's Discretion"
Adam Peterson, "Time and Temperature," "Dispatches before the War"
Colin Winnette, "Super Awesome Sexy Weekend" 
Michael Leone, "Provenance; or, Notes from a Vanished Archive"

Nonfiction

Angela Woodward, "Punctuation essay" 
Nalini Jones, "You Are Looking Almost Good"
Ariel Lewiton, "Holiday"

Poetry

Christopher Kempf, "Kitchen, Fragile"
Nance Van Winckel, "Evening Protocols"
Brian Sneeden, "Lord's Prayer"
Mark Wagenaar, "The Little Book of Fate," "Superman's Love Letter to Kryptonite"
Jessamyn Schnackenberg, "A Scatology"
Stephen Frech, "Enough, Not Enough"
Nathan Slinker, "The Adirondacks"
Patrick Whitfill, "Letter to Howard Nemerov"
David Welch, "The Rabbit's First Order Is the Hawk"

Art Features

Ben Pond, insert
Mattias Adolfsson, insert
The Questia Project

Where We’re @

Greg Rodgers, "Storytelling in the Midwest"
Ceridwen Hall, "Turkey Detour"

Editorial Staff

Editor: Jodee Stanley

Creative Nonfiction Editors: Philip Graham and Janice N. Harrington

Poetry Editor: Michael Madonick

Art Directors: Brian Wiley and Maurice Meilleur

Designers: Lauren Blackburn, Vanessa Burritt, Denise Castaneda, Scott Durand, Dane Georges, Yoojin Hong, Catherine Kolakowski, Bryan Lorenz, Monique Marchwiany, Julian Pahre, Samantha Persons, Lauren Shepherd

Assistant Editors: Kendra Chapman, Angela Hine, Sean MacIntyre

Editorial Assistants: Laura Adamczyk, David Ethan Chambers, Michael Don, Sara Fan, Khaleel Gheba, Ceridwen Hall, Angela Hine, Avery Irons, Roya Khatiblou, Calgary Martin, Natalie Mesnard, Greg Rodgers, Sidney Taiko Sheehan, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Lucilena Williams

Support at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

College of Fine and Applied Arts
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department of English
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
LAS Humanities Council
Office of the Chancellor
Office of the Provost
School of Art and Design

Individual Sponsors

Publisher
Richard Powers
Robert Skiba

Friend
Joan Golder 
Robert Graves 
Kathleen Harleman
Robert and Allison Mesnard
Pamela Saunders

This project is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

Information about supporting Ninth Letter can be found at www.ninthletter.com; all donations and gifts to Ninth Letter are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Featured Writer #112: Michele Morano


Fuori di Testa

A crush starts in the back of the throat, at the edge of a swallow, attraction meeting a hint of repulsion like a wave rolling forward even as it pulls back, like “uh-oh” and “here we go again,” again being the operative word. Crushes are iterative: with each new one, you’ve been here before, never mind that you’re forty, then fifty, then fifty-five years old and happily partnered; the crushes keep coming on people you know and people you don’t. Read more...


 

2023 Regeneration Contest Winners


 

Ninth Letter is excited to announce the winner, honorable mention, and finalist of our 2023 Regeneration Literary Contest. Special thanks to contest sponsor, the Illinois Regenerative Agriculture Initiative, and to our guest judge Dr. Craig Santos Perez. The winning story will be published in print and online in December 2023, and the honorable mention essay will appear online. Thank you to all of our submitters, finalists, and readers.  

 

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