Killens Review of Arts & Letters (Spring / Summer 2015)
Edited by Clarence V. Reynolds

Fall / Winter 2015 “Memory and Myth”

Memories have a magical power: they can stir our imaginations and deepest emotions.

For this issue, we invited writers and artists to explore themes of cultural and social memory as well as myth in literature and art. Several poets, novelists, and artists recounted and shared memories about ancestors and feelings that are deeply meaningful to their lives. As far as myths were concerned, some examined and unearthed mythical ideas that exist in certain cultures and they present¬ed stories and imagery in lyrical and imaginative ways for readers to interpret. Included in this issue is the essay “What’s in a Name?” by W. B. Garvey; a touching story titled “How to Write Your Grandmother’s Obituary’ by Irvin Weathersby; and poetry by Ursula Rucker, Julian Randall, and E.J. Antonio. The Portfolio “The Synergy of Myth and Memory” spotlights the photography of Moses Djeli.

Author and poet Tracy K. Smith notes that wanting to write about her mother’s death was the impetus for her newly released memoir, Ordinary Light. The late Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez said that “the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.”

Every age has created myths to help us understand the mysteries of the universe and the human condition. Mythologists and writer Joseph Campbell inform us that myths are public dreams and that dreams are private myths.

In the Fall 2015 issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters, we to explore the theme of cultural and social memory and myth in literature and art.