Fall & Winter 1996

VOLUME 15 - NO. 1 & 2

Fall & Winter 1996

TABLE OF CONTENTS

	SPECIAL SECTION: Alan Lightman
	Uneasy Pleasure -- Learning to love the Questions Themselves: An Interview with Alan Lightman
	*fromEinstein's Dreams*: Prologue**
	from *Einstein's Dreams: 26 April 1905*
	from *Einstein's Dreams: 14 May 1905*
	from *Einstein's Dreams: 2 June 1905*
	from *Einstein's Dreams: 17 June 1905*
	from *Good Benito*
	Other Rooms
	Pas de Deux

	ALAN LIGHTMAN is the John E. Burchard Professor of Science and Writing and a Senior Lecturer in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of two acclaimed novels, the best-selling Einstein’s Dreams and Good Benito; a newly released collection of literary nonfiction essays, Dance for Two, and nine other books including Great Ideas in Physics, Time Travel and Papa Joe’s Pipe, Time for the Stars: Astronomy for the 1990’s, and Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Cosmologists (winner of the Association of American Publishers award for the best book in physical science in 1990). His fiction, essays, and numerous articles (including a long list of technical articles on physics and astronomy) have appeared in The New Yorker, Science, The New York Times Magazine, Harpers, and a wide variety of other publications. Of his literary nonfiction Annie Dillard wrote: "Alan Lightman is one of our most consistently fascinating writers." Stephen Jay Gould concluded that the essays "present the finest combination of graceful writing with good science now available." In praise of his fiction, Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times observed that Einstein’s Dreams transports the reader to "a magical, metaphysical realm…grounded in precise crystalline prose." Susan Fromberg Schaeffer writing for the Chicago Sun-Times summed it up this way: "Gorgeous in its writing, spellbinding and profound in its effects."

	FICTION

	California	Patrick Roscoe
	Patrick Roscoe, a Canadian writer, is the author of two story collections and three novels, the most recent of which is The Lost Oasis (St. Martin’s Press). His short stories have been published widely in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States and have been included three times in both the annual Best Canadian Stories and the prestigious British anthology Winter Tales.

	Songbird	Wendell Mayo
	Wendell Mayo has served twice as full-time lecturer in Lithuania, where he conducted seminars on Creative Writing and American Literature. His stories have appeared widely in literary journals including Yale Review, Prairie Schooner, Missouri Review, and New Letters. This is his second appearance in AQR.

	Dancing in Slow Motion	Melanie Hendrix
	Melanie Hendrix's stories have appeared in Puerto del Sol, Apalachee Quarterly, American Literary Review, and other journals. In 1992 she received a Transatlantic Review Award for fiction.

	Absolution	Randi Davenport
	Randi Davenport teaches at Alma College. "Absolution" is her first published story.

	The Girl Who Took Two Trains	Amber Dorko Stopper
	Amber Dorko Stopper has recent stories in Northwest Review, Two Girls Review, Cutbank, and the anthology, The Whole Story: Editors on Fiction. This is her fourth appearance in AQR.

	Day of Days	Joshua Braff
	Joshua Braff is in the MFA writing program at St. Mary’s College. One of his stories appeared in New Voices in Poetry and Prose.

	Distance	Elizabeth Moore
	Elizabeth Moore's stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Kansas Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Carolina Quarterly, and other journals. One of her stories received a citation in The Best American Short Stories.

	The Loneliest Road in America	Roy Parvin
	Roy Parvin has stories forthcoming in The Quarterly, Northwest Review, Turnstile, and The Writing Path. "The Loneliest Road in America" is the title story of his collection scheduled for publication in 1997 by Chronicle Books.

	The Winter Guest	H.E. Francis
	H.E. Francis' stories have appeared in the O. Henry, Pushcart, and Best American volumes. His latest collection, The Sudden Trees, will be published in 1996. This is his second appearance in AQR.

	I Found Hitler's Golf Clubs	Ron Carlson
	Ron Carlson is the author of four books of fiction: the story collections Plan B for the Middle Class and The News of the World; and two novels Truants and Betrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald. His fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies including Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Playboy, The Best American Short Stories, and Sudden Fiction.

	POETRY *Guest Editor: Stuart Dischell*

	Towards	Thomas Lux
	Thomas Lux is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Split Horizon (Houghton Mifflin). He is a recipient of the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

	Hunting, the Mice Come to America	Sheila Nickerson
	Sheila Nickerson is the author of seven collections of poetry and a memoir, Disappearance: A Map (Doubleday), published in 1996.

	Voice-over	David Rivard
	David Rivard teaches at Tufts University and at the Vermont College MFA Program. His books are Torque (University of Pittsburgh) and Wise Poison (Graywolf).

	Delirious	Ira Sadoff
	Ira Sadoff is the Dana Professor of Poetry at Colby College and also teaches in the Warren Wilson low-residency MFA program. Delirious: New and Selected Poems is forthcoming from Godine -- the title poem appears in this issue.

	On the Corruption of Bodies	David Blair
	David Blair's poems have appeared in The Quarterly, The Brooklyn Review, The Pittsburgh Review, and The International Poetry Review.

	Not Crying	Gail Mazur
	Gail Mazur is the author of three collections of poems: Nightfire (Godine), The Pose of Happiness (Godine), and The Common (Chicago). She is the founder and director of Blacksmith House Poetry Center and teaches in the Graduate Writing Programs of Emerson College and the Harvard University Extension School.

	All Night I Waited for the Deer	Michael Sofranko
	Michael Sofranko directs the Southwest Writers Project. His poems have appeared in many publications, including The Alabama Literary Review, Ploughshares, and Quarry West. A collection of poems, Homing Instincts, was published by Wings Press.

	To Be Carried up from the Cellar	Louise Kennelly
	Louise Kennelly's poetry has been published in Northwest Review and elsewhere. Her book tracking god in italy was published by Singular Speech Press.

	Montana	A. Naoko Heck
	A. Naoko Heck's poems have appeared in Goliard, Greensboro Review, and Artful Dodge. She teaches English and World Geography to eighth graders.

	Master of the Car	Ian Randall Wilson
	Ian Randall Wilson is the Director of Screen Credits for MGM Studios. His work has appeared in The New Mexico Humanities Review, Mid-American Review, Poetry East, and The North American Review.

	Internal Directions	Julie Funderburk
	Julie Funderburk is a recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets and the Irene Leache Poetry Foundation. Her work has appeared in The Greensboro Review.

	The Gods' Breasts	Kevin Boyle
	Kevin Boyle teaches at Elon College. His poems have appeared in many publications, including Virginia Quarterly Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Antioch Review, Passages North, and The North American Review.

	The Poet through French Doors	Zev Levinson
	Zev Levinson recently completed an MFA in poetry at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

	For Whoever Reads My Book in Solitude	Jason Sommer
	Jason Sommer's poems have appeared in many publications including TriQuarterly Review. His book, Other People’s Troubles (Chicago), is forthcoming in the fall of 1997.

	Inhibitions, Symptoms, Anxiety	David Ghitelman
	David Ghitelman has recent poems in Agni, The Antioch Review, and New Letters.

	Falling Asleep over a Book about Consciousness	Steven Cramer
	Steven Cramer is the author of The Eye That Desires to Look Upward and The World Book. He teaches at Bennington College.

	Anxiety of Influence	Askold Melnyczuk
	Askold Melnyczuk is the editor of Agni, and teaches at Boston University and the Bennington College Master of Fine Arts Program. His novel What Is Told was published by Faber and Faber.

	Last Request, November 1939	Eve Wood
	Eve Wood's work has appeared in Poetry, Antioch Review, Poet & Critic, Puerto del Sol, and Yellow Silk.

	Men and Parrots: El Paso, Texas	Kathleene West
	Kathleene West is poetry editor of Puerto del Sol. Among her seven collections of poetry are Water Witching (Copper Canyon) and The Farmer’s Daughter (Sandhills Press).

	Missionary Ridge	Leigh Anne Couch
	Leigh Anne Couch was recently on the staff of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. This is her first published poem.

	High Summer, Mummy Range, Colorado	David Olson
	David Olson grew up in Oklahoma. His work has appeared in Tapjoe, West Branch, Crab Creek Review, and Climbing Art.

	Foundering	Clenn Reed
	Clenn Reed has recently earned his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. This is his first publication.

	Carriage House	Jennifer Militello
	Jennifer Militello's poetry has appeared in The Brooklyn Review, Greensboro Review, International Poetry Review, and Nedge.

	"Without Impatience"	D.L. Stevens
	D.L. Stevens lives in Santa Monica, California. This is her first published poem.

	Silent Partner	Christina Veladota
	Christina Veladota has published poems in The Greensboro Review and Brooklyn Review.

	Under the Pines	Tom Sleigh
	Tom Sleigh teaches at Dartmouth College. He is the author of three collections of poetry: After One (Houghton Mifflin), Waking (Chicago), and The Chain (Chicago).

	Shrike	Jennifer Manning
	Jennifer Manning is a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her poems have appeared in Green Mountain Review and The Greensboro Review.

	The Ferrier	Michael Collier
	Michael Collier is the director of the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. He is the author of three books of poems, most recently The Neighbor (Chicago), and has edited The Wesleyan Tradition: Four Decades of American Poetry.

	Another Day	Alan Shapiro
	Alan Shapiro teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of five books of poetry -- most recently Mixed Company (Chicago) -- and two collections of essays In Praise of the Impure (Northwester) and The Last Happy Occasion (Chicago).