FALL 2021 | Volume 4, Issue 1
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
My son, Simon Patrick Reynolds, was born at 3:03 in the afternoon on the fourth of November, 2021. Hemingway would probably end the essay right here, and in fact all great writers probably should—having stumbled upon a direct object so singularly profound, inherently depictive, and diversely applied that any adjectival phrase only demeans the depth of the tangible thing. There is a poetic elegance in the silence of shared knowing that is so transformative it radiates an observable kind of influence to even those who don’t know. And even someone as absurd as me won’t try and tackle fatherhood in an editor’s essay, especially when there are plenty of good Cat Stevens records to listen to on the subject.
Instead, I’ll simply tell you that I love him, and you’ll get it. We who live in this place together, this house of ideas; we grasp it. It is a calamitous love. And calamity is the only way to live.
Instantly I was confronted by those paradoxical waves—excited for milestones and moments to come, while being terrified about how old I would be when they arrived—covetous of this time together and egotistically paranoid about the parts of my own life that I was neglecting, that I was “losing.” But that’s all trash; we live too much on the balance sheet, negotiating with time, negotiating with sacrifice. And we; those of us who live in this place together, should really know better. We should only ever be on about things that live outside epochs and trade-offs and timelines—things about joy, achievement, sport, art, Trinity College Dublin, love and melancholy. We’ve all grown too weary and too practical and aware of sacrifices in the last two years, and I guess history will tell us if our excuses for that were good enough, but let’s forget all of that claptrap now. In this place together. My son taught me all of that in two weeks, and that dude doesn’t even talk yet.
The truth is I’ve always lived my own way. The more humble truth is that you can only really do that if the people in your life don’t throw you overboard for it. So I thank all of you for being here, in this realm, in this place of places, with me. And I thank my wife, for being better than me, and stronger than me and tolerant of me and all of the things I get wrong. Did I end up doing the things I said I wouldn’t do in the opening paragraph? Oh well, promises and such.
--JR
Ps—We’re back around again. Playwriting, songwriting, new writer contests launching in the spring. Salon events in Boston, DC, and Connecticut in the lead up to the Dublin residency in May. The Sophisticants winter TCD cohort starting next winter. Ask us about them—newsquarelit@gmail.com.
STAFF PICKS
Books/Literature
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (Amber)​
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Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Quiet American by Graham Greene (Joe)
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A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris
A Swim in a Pong in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Gave a
Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (Kerry)
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
The All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey by Richard Blanco
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Ring Shout by Djèlí Clark
Edinburgh by Alexander Chee (Sean)
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Film
All That Heaven Allows
It Happened One Night
You Were Never Lovelier
Meet Me in St. Louis (Bianca)
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Fear Street Trilogy
Sleepy Hollow (Eri)
Rushmore
Brooklyn
Once
Rounder (Joe)
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Sean)
Documentary
The Beatles: Get Back by Peter Jackson (Kevin)
Television
Over the Garden Wall​​
Arcane: League of Legends (Eri)
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Only Murders in the Building (Kerry)
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Downtown Abbey
The Cook of Castamar
Frontier (Sean)
Music (Albums)
Murder Ballads of 1846: The Donner Party by American Murder Song
Murder Ballads of 1816: The Year Without a Summer by American Murder Song (Eri)
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The Kick Inside by Kate Bush
Lindsay Buckingham by Lindsay Buckingham (Kerry)
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Million Dollar Bill by Middle Brother
Changing EP by The Brazen Youth
Other You by Steve Gunn
Okie by J.J. Cale
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30 by Adele
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday Soundtrack by Andra Day (Sean)
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Music (Songs)
"Vienna" by Billy Joel (Amber)
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"Autumn Leaves" by Nat "King" Cole
"Early Autumn" by Ella Fitzgeralnd
"October Twilight" by Frankie Carle
"Great Pumpkin Waltz" by Vince Guaraldi Trio
"Shine on Harvest Moon" by Artie Shaw (Bianca)
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"Give and Take" by Poor Man's Poison
"This December" by Ricky Montgomery
"Bones in the Ocean" by the longest johns
"Puzzle Pieces" by Saint Motel
"Sisters" by Saint Motel
"Angry Too" by Lola Blanc (Eri)
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"Mi Forma de Ser" (Mambo Version) by Farruko featuring Ala Jaza
"Essence" by Wizkid featuring Justin Bieber (Sean)
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Artists
Halestorm (Eri)
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EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor in Chief/Fiction Editor | Joseph M. Reynolds
Managing Editor | Samuel Marx
Poetry Editor | Sean Frederick Forbes
Nonfiction Editor | Kerry Feltner
Book Review Editor | Amber Smith
Film Review Editor | Cassandra Steele
Music Review Editor | Kevin Carr
Layout/Design | Eri Lauer
Copy Editor | Bianca J. Robinson