AGNI 81
Contents
Editor's Note
The Problem of Other Minds
Fiction
Ivan at the Wedding
Haven’t a Clue
A Note on the Type
The Loss of All Lost Things
The Rain That Time/That Thing That Happened
Breaking Up
Meeting God
Return of the Frenchman
The Middle Child
Who’s Crazy Now?
A Simple Composition
by Shruti Swamy
Essays
If Anyone Had Told Me Where We Were Going
by Elvis Bego
Hikikomori: Salt Constellations
A Eulogy for the Living
by Jim Dameron
Fainting
by Chloe Honum
A Frame Also Is Like Love
Shadowboxing: No, Really: What Is To Be Done in Ukraine
Bodies in Motion
by Mara Naselli
Crucibles: Is Knausgaard for Real?
Poetry
There’s Not a Lot of Work for Sideways Man
by Sarah Barber
Ode to a South Window
Vidalia
Frederico’s Querencia
The Pines of the Villa Pamphili
Villanelle
by Peter Cooley
You Are in a Lake
Baptist Town
Next Summer’s Garden
Winter Move
Natick
by Edgar Kunz
Window Washers
by Edgar Kunz
Attic Stairs
Pentimento
by Kyle McCord
Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight in Iberia
by Kyle McCord
from Une Cave, Une Caverne, Un Trou . . .
Stopping at Texaco a Year After My Brother’s Death
The Wind Lends a Voice To a Mountain Laurel Above Pretty Polly’s Grave
The Heart in the Snow
by John Rybicki
The Invented Man
It was how a sentence
Ritalin
by Sara Wallace
Automatic Pool Cleaner
by Noah Warren
Helsingaar
by Noah Warren
Dead Star Warps Its Partner’s Light
The Future Is Your Friend
Bringing Home the Bull
Hay Cutting
Love Song of the Barred Owl
Poems of Summer
Art Feature
In a Foyer (a) and an Attic (b) (essay)
The Voice Imitator
Tiles, Clouds, Boys, and Penicillin (essay)
Anna Schuleit Haber’s arresting sequence of paintings—from which we take our cover and portfolio—is entitled The Voice Imitator. How apt that is, for AGNI 81, even more than previous issues, is a gathering of uniquely expressive tonalities. From the fictional flights of writers like Stephen Dixon, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Amina Gautier, and Karl Ove Knausgaard; to the essayistic renderings of Chloe Honum, Jennifer S. Cheng, and Adam Szczucinski; and on to poems and translations by Cyrus Cassells, Patricia Hooper, Noah Warren, Martha Silano, and Vivek Narayanan, the octaves of the contemporary are thoroughly sounded.
Editor
Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts
Founding Editor
Askold Melnyczuk
Askold Melnyczuk
Senior Editor
William Pierce
William Pierce
Asst. Poetry Editor
Sumita Chakraborty
Sumita Chakraborty
Poetry Editor
Lynne Potts
Lynne Potts
Fiction Editor
William Giraldi
William Giraldi
Prose Editor
Jennifer Alise Drew
Jennifer Alise Drew
Readers
Jessica Keener
Mary O'Donoghue
Erin Trahan
Brian Burt
Jessica Keener, Mary O'Donoghue, Erin Trahan, Brian Burt
Galley Editors/Events
Lindsay Guth
Beth Romano
Lindsay Guth, Beth Romano
Social Media
Sumita Chakraborty
Rachel Mennies
Sumita Chakraborty, Rachel Mennies
Marketing
Daniel Pritchard
Steven LaFond
Daniel Pritchard, Steven LaFond
Newsletter Director
Alison Lanier
Alison Lanier
Advisory Board
Leslie Epstein
Robert Pinsky
Derek Walcott
Rosanna Warren
Leslie Epstein, Robert Pinsky, Derek Walcott, Rosanna Warren
Editorial Assistants
Alison Lanier
Dan Murphy
Jessica Stokes
Jesse De Angelis
Caroline de Lacvivier
Emily Pineau
Kathleen McGunagle
Jeffrey Huizinga
Alison Lanier, Dan Murphy, Jessica Stokes, Jesse De Angelis, Caroline de Lacvivier, Emily Pineau, Kathleen McGunagle, Jeffrey Huizinga
Contributing Editors
Lucie Brock-Broido
John J. Clayton
William Corbett
Stuart Dischell
Sharon Dunn, ed. emerita
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Anne Germanacos
Marie Howe
Diana Der-Hovanessian
Ha Jin
Alex Johnson
Dana Levin
Fred Marchant
Fiona McCrae
Gail Mazur
Dzvinia Orlowsky
Lia Purpura
George Scialabba
Tom Sleigh
Sue Standing
Oksana Zabuzhko
Lucie Brock-Broido, John J. Clayton, William Corbett, Stuart Dischell, Sharon Dunn, ed. emerita, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Anne Germanacos, Marie Howe, Diana Der-Hovanessian, Ha Jin, Alex Johnson, Dana Levin, Fred Marchant, Fiona McCrae, Gail Mazur, Dzvinia Orlowsky, Lia Purpura, George Scialabba, Tom Sleigh, Sue Standing, Oksana Zabuzhko