Latest Issue of Bard College’s Celebrated Literary Magazine Conjunctions Explores Fear in Its Countless Guises

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Humans have a genius for fear. Terrors of every imaginable kind surround us, as often as not the wily demons of our own creation, and grow more ghastly, untenable, and malignant with every passing generation. “Whether founded in truth or imagination, fear has a toxic genius for pervading our lives,” writes Conjunctions editor Bradford Morrow. “It has many faces and many means of forcing itself upon us.” 

Conjunctions:78, Fear Itself—the latest issue of the innovative literary magazine published by Bard College, which is now celebrating more than 40 years of continuous publication—collects fiction, poetry, essays, and genre-bending work from 30 contemporary writers who are willing to interrogate the wide spectrum of apprehensions, terrors, and dread we humans experience. “War, inequality, abandonment, an evolving climate catastrophe born of the relentless degradation of our planet, this tenacious pandemic, the unknown—such are only a few realities that daily generate existential fear . . . ” Morrow continues in his Editor’s Note. “Yet fear is ubiquitous in our myths and fairy tales, songs and theater, art and literature, and the historical legacies of every culture. Fear and its many nemeses—confidence, bravery, faith among them—are locked in a mortal dance in every narrative humans create, both in life and on the page.”

Edited by novelist and Bard literature professor Morrow, Fear Itself features new fiction from Ray Bradbury Prize winner Stephen Graham Jones, novelist and PEN/Martha Albrand Prize winner Rick Moody, Shirley Jackson Award winner Jeffrey Ford, and Jerusalem Prize winner Joyce Carol Oates. The first English translations of “Two Stories” by Polish writer Bronka Nowicka and “Like A Disease Whose Threshold No One Can Cross, She Says,” by Mexican poet Coral Bracho also appear in the issue along with new poems by Whiting Award winner Shane McCrae, Elizabeth Robinson, and Jessica Reed, among others.

Additional contributors to Fear Itself include Julia Elliott, Bennett Sims, Akil Kumarasamy, Katheryn Davis, Kristine Ong Muslim, Brandon Hobson, Monica Datta, Michael Harris Cohen, Brian Evenson, Barbara Tomash, Matthew Baker, Tori Malcangio, Bin Ramke, Rebecca Lilly, Genevieve Valentine, Terese Svoboda, Rob Walsh, Mary Kuryla, Troy Jollimore, Quintan Ana Wikswo, and Eleni Sikelianos.

The Washington Post says, “Conjunctions offers a showplace for some of the most exciting and demanding writers now at work.”

Edited by Bradford Morrow and published twice yearly by Bard College, Conjunctions publishes innovative fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by emerging voices and contemporary masters. For four decades, Conjunctions has challenged accepted forms and styles, with equal emphasis on groundbreaking experimentation and rigorous execution. In 2020, Conjunctions received the prestigious Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. The judges noted, “Every issue of Conjunctions is a feat of curatorial invention, continuing the Modernist project of dense, economical writing, formal innovation, and an openness to history and the world.” Named a “Top Literary Magazine 2019” by Reedsy, the journal was a finalist for the 2018, 2019, and 2021 ASME Award for Fiction and the 2018 CLMP Firecracker Award for General Excellence. In addition, contributions to recent issues have been selected for The Best American Essays (2018, 2019), The Pushcart Prize XLIV: Best of the Small Presses, Best American Experimental Writing 2020, Best Small Fictions 2019, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2019, and The Best American Short Stories 2021.

For more information on the latest issue, please visit conjunctions.com/print/archive/conjunctions78. To order a copy, go to annandaleonline.org/conjunctions, call the Conjunctions office at 845-758-7054, email [email protected], or write to Conjunctions, Bard College, PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000. Visit the Conjunctions website at conjunctions.com. About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year, residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in more than 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 13 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.

This event was last updated on 06-06-2022

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