Tag: Daniel J. Cecil
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Fiction: Daniel J. Cecil’s “The Stages of Orbit”
The Stages of Orbit -1- Jonathan was drawn back by a force when the airlock opened. It was the vision of the kitchen floor, which was another opening, and another loss of air—something he wasn’t quite expecting the weight of. That day was like this one. The lack of oxygen was what he felt. When…
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“The Old Reactor Keeps Chugging”: A Reflection on the Writings of David Ohle by Daniel J. Cecil
1. Throughout his entire life, my grandfather has worked and lived as a farmer. Years of shuffling feet, skinny legs pressed to the back of tobacco and dirt stained overalls, he bouncing along in the seat of a green John Deere before a slow, meditating descent into his favorite rocking chair in which he sat,…
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“The Straightforward Prose of Ben Marcus?”: Daniel J. Cecil Reviews Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus
When I joined Versal back in 2010, I was curious what other editors at the journal were reading. I was most interested in what Robert Glick, my fiction editor was intrigued by, and in response to my asking he gave two suggestions: read the Collected Fictions of Borges (which he kindly gifted to me), and devour…
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“Lennon and the Spectacles of Fandom”: An Interview with Christopher Bundy by Daniel J. Cecil
I recently re-watched Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. I was house sitting for someone with a television. It was on Netflix. Sue me. I don’t know why I chose that movie in particular. There were hundreds of things to choose from–but there I was watching this strangely pre-9/11 post 9/11 film. Maybe I wanted to…
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“The House by the Sea”: Daniel J. Cecil Reviews Petrarchan by Kristina Marie Darling
In short-order three works by the same author, Kristina Marie Darling, landed on my desk. I feel a certain amount of hesitation when I decide to review another writer’s work. I almost get a bit itchy. I was initially inclined by gut reaction to pass on this one—reviewing the same author (Darling) within a few…
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“Assembling in the Margins”: The Moon & Other Inventions by Kristina Marie Darling, reviewed by Daniel J. Cecil
Joseph Cornell was an American sculptor and a maker of assemblage, a recluse, and according to several biographical sources, rarely left his home in Flushing, New York. During his long career he constructed dozens of ornate boxes that related small narratives between the spaces of reason. According to the Oxford Dictionary,an assemblage is a collection…