The 18th issue of the Arkansas International will be available Saturday. The Fayetteville-based literary magazine has accomplished quite a bit during its first 17 issues, including a 2021 Whiting Award for Literary Magazine, a CLMP Firecracker Award for best magazine debut, a 2023 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and work from writers in more than 70 countries. Issue 18 will focus on Arkansas — a first for the magazine.
Last week, Anne Greeott, editor in chief, Claire Scott, poetry editor, and Geoffrey Brock, founding editor of the Arkansas International, came to the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio to talk about the magazine and the grand release party Saturday at the Walker Stone House in downtown Fayetteville.
Greeott says she's pleased to see the magazine continue to connect writers and readers.
Anne Greeott: It's amazing to see the development of the magazine over — well, we're in our 10th year now. Speaking as one of the — I was on the first staff in 2016 as a graduate student. Back then, I was the translation editor. Having been involved that first year, just on the first two issues, and then in the intermediary I was a contributor a couple of times. So I kept in touch with how the magazine developed. It's beautiful, and I'm just so grateful to step in once again.
Kyle Kellams: What will we see in issue 18?
Claire Scott: Issue 18 is a themed issue. Every other issue we do is themed, and the theme for this one is Arkansas. Every single writer has a meaningful connection to the state of Arkansas — whether that be being from here, currently living here, having lived here at one point. We have some alums of the creative writing program. Some of the work is Arkansas-focused in subject matter, but some of it is just more broadly connected by the identity of the writers.
Kellams: Let's talk about some of those Arkansas connections and some of the talent we'll see in the pages.
Greeott: Speaking of the connection to the MFA program, it shows quite a scope of that program as well, in that some of our heritage writers — writers from the 20th century, such as C.D. Wright and Frank Stanford, for example, who were both in the MFA program here and who are probably some of the best-known graduates or participants in that program. Having those two writers involved, as well as current graduates of the program including Zach Harrod and Brody Parrish Craig, and current faculty as well, including Jeffrey Davis, for example, and Rebecca Gayle Howell — and also alums: J. Bailey Hutchinson and Megan Blankenship.
Geoffrey Brock: But there are lots of other contributors, too, that have nothing to do with the University of Arkansas MFA program. We should say Gustav Carlsson contributed the comics — the illustrations for the Charles Portis 1957 piece that Charles Portis wrote for The Arkansas Traveler, which is a hilarious parody of small-town newspaper columns. So that's the comic in the issue. And Anne mentioned the heritage contributors — we also have reprints. So it's mostly new work by contemporary writers, but we are reprinting several pieces by C.D. Wright and Frank Stanford, but also Henry Dumas, who was the great writer from Sweet Home. We're reprinting his story set in the Arkansas Delta called "Goodbye, Sweetwater."
Greeott: Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, who was — for 17 years, I believe — the poet laureate, the first woman poet laureate of Arkansas. We have a few of her poems in there to celebrate her contribution, as she was born in Italy and came to make Arkansas her home and really spoke for the state as the poet laureate. So we're proud to have her work there as well. Also another aspect that is unique — that broadens the voices involved but is also really rooted in this place — is a folio of work by emerging Nigerian writers. That was curated by Uchenna Awoke, who was our writer in residence for the Writers at Risk Program that the Arkansas International has had, and it was co-curated by Obuchi, who's a current MFA student.
Brock: So that Nigerian portfolio, curated by two local Nigerian writers, is the international element of this issue of the Arkansas International.
Kellams: Speaking of Henry Dumas from Sweet Home, there is a fiction prize named in his honor.
Greeott: Yes, in fact we have two prizes. In the fall of last year, we had the C.D. Wright Prize, which we're honored to have named after C.D. Wright. That one is now finished — we were honored to have Forrest Gander judge that prize this year, her widower. And we have the Henry Dumas Fiction Prize for Emerging Writers of Fiction, open until the 15th — so only until Wednesday. It's for one short story, for writers who have not published a book, and you can go to our website and submit. The prize is $1,000 and publication.
Kellams: The cover of this issue —
Greeott: I am so happy that we were able to get an image by Carroll Cloar, who is an Arkansan artist who produced a piece called "Moonstricken Girls," which we were graciously invited to use by David Lusk, who manages the estate, and by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock. So that's our cover, and it's just luminous and beautiful. Some of his work is in Crystal Bridges, which some listeners might be familiar with.
Kellams: As founding editor, I'm sure that when you were working on issue one.
Brock: Which was exactly 10 years ago.
Kellams: I’m sure you weren't thinking about issue 18 yet. But the hope, the desire was there would be an issue 18, issue 28, and issue 58, right?
Brock: Absolutely. It is gratifying to be at this 10-year anniversary mark, because you never know if that's going to happen. But it's in wonderful hands now, so hopefully there'll be a 20th anniversary coming up in 10 years.
Kellams: Claire, you're the poetry editor. This issue includes work from C.D. Wright and Frank Stanford.
Scott: So exciting to have them in the issue. I am graduating from the MFA program this spring, and last fall we got to go — for one of my classes — to C.D. Wright's archives in Mullins and the special collections. I think that was one of my most special experiences, to see the huge scope of her work and to see her roots in Arkansas. As someone who is also from Arkansas, it is a crazy honor to be able to include poems by her in a magazine that has my name on it in any way.
Brock: It might be worth mentioning, too, that the Stanford excerpt is from the new edition of the poem The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You, which just came out from the University of Arkansas Press, edited by James McWilliams. It's the definitive edition of that poem.
Kellams: And speaking of James McWilliams, his biography of Frank Stanford last year is well worth picking up. It's fantastic.
Greeott: Well, since we're on the topic of Frank Stanford — my first experience of coming to know Stanford's work really well was at a Frank Stanford festival organized here in Fayetteville, I don't remember how many years ago, by Matthew Henriksen. It's our great pleasure as a staff — we decided to dedicate this issue to Matt. Many of us knew him in person.
I knew him from the poetry community around here, and also as a colleague — he taught high school. He and I were colleagues teaching high school together, so I really saw him day to day. He died in 2022. Matt was a great supporter of the arts in the community, and he was just a supporter of people whose voices had not been heard — including the incarcerated, including his high school students, and including just anyone who felt like they had been left out. It means a lot for us to have a few pieces in the work that were inspired by him and mention him directly, including one essay by Adam Clay and a few poems from other contributors that were inspired by him. For me it feels like this issue has the spirit of Matt in it. And he would be — I hope — really honored to be in the company that he's in there.
We have one of his poems in there as well.
Anne Greeott is editor in chief of the Arkansas International. Claire Scott is poetry editor and Geoffrey Brock is the founding editor. The grand release party for issue 18 is Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Walker Stone House in downtown Fayetteville. There will be food, drink, music and some of the issue's contributors at the party. It's open to the public. You can learn more at arkint.org. This conversation was recorded at the Carver Center for Public Radio last week.
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