Alaska Quarterly Review

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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “The Ritualist” by Anne-Marie Kinney

ByRoss McMeekin

  A few weeks back I wrote a column about “Optimism” by Angie Kim. In her story, the main character suffers a recent traumatic event, and in her grief, produces a ritual around it. Anne-Marie Kinney’s wonderful story “The Ritualist” (Alaska Quarterly Review, Fall/Winter 2014) explores the nature of rituals through a character whose entire…

The Best Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Not Like What You Said” by Debbie Urbanski

ByLyndsey Reese

The older I get, the more I notice that my handwriting resembles my mother’s. Her cursive is so even, consistent, and precise that her letters and grocery lists look like they’ve been typed up on the computer and printed out. My handwriting isn’t like that—it’s sloppy and irregular—but when I get going, when I write…