Newspaper Page Text
April 1, 1992
Flagpole Magazine
Page 13 .-i
influence on their work. Kipling borrowed several unac-
knowledgedjines from Chivers and Yeats’s “The Lake Isle
of Innisfree’ closes on a powerful echo of Chivers’s
"Nacoochee.'
Nacoochee' was Chivers’s only poem to utilize Geor
gia themes and settings, but it does so in a slipshod and
very unsatisfying way. He cooks up a phony Cherokee
legend, begins the action in the Nacoochee valley (which
he identifies, along with Toccoa Falls, as being in Clarke
county), then shifts it suddenly to an imaginary giant lake
between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers, which, without
explanation, becomes the Okefenokee swamp. The poem
describes a Cherokee maiden living alone on a paradisal
island who is whisked away by angels when her lover
arrives. Nacoochee is a fairly awful poem, but reveals that
Chivers, despite his hallucinatory use of Georgia geogra
phy, had some knowledge of Cherokee traditions. He
describes a giant rattlesnake with a diamond in its fore
head, unmistakably the Uktena which plays a large role in
many Cherokee tales. Chivers had probably read James
Adair s History of the American Indians (1775) because he,
Book Marks
like Adair, gives a Hebrew etymology for Native American
placenames. It may have been from Adair that he learned
of the Uktena, but we definitely know that Chivers travelled
extensively in the Cherokee Nation before removal and had
a degree of sympathy with the Cherokee unusual for a white
Georgian. This sympathy did not prevent him from claiming
land near Ringgold which he received in the state’s distri
bution of the stolen Cherokee lands.
Chivers is often dismissed as a humorous or pathetic
footnote to Poe’s career, and there is some justice in this.
Still, some of his work, particularly in the volumes Eonchs of
Ruby and Virginalia, is strange, beautiful, and surprisingly
modern. Chivers must be remembered as a visionary and
a technical innovator who was disgusted with the trivial
themes and trite, hidebound versification of his contempo
raries. His verse was experimental and experiments in
verso, as in chemistry, often fail. Chivers was a kindred spirit
to Poe, but utterly lacking in Poe’s acute critical sense. For
better or worse, this death-obsessed, visionary doctor
remains northeast Georgia’s most famous and influential
^ 0e *' Copyright 1992, John Seawright
The Flannery O’Connor Award
Selected Stories
Edited by Charles East
(The U.Ga. Press, 1991)
336 pages, $24.95 cloth
The short story has always been a genre of writing that’s received little respect from the publishing world. For years,
publishing houses have shied away from the stories because of their belief that people want to read novels rather than
collections of short stories. Due to this stigma, short stories were mainly published in literary magazines such as Harper's
and The New Yorker, or were fictional features in other magazines. The only time most short stories were published in book
form was when a publishing house wanted to fill the time between an author’s novels. That being the only market for short
fiction, many authors and great stories were overlooked in the process. This situation, though, began to change when
university presses got involved in publishing short fiction
Due to the vast amount of unpublished work, an obvious niche in the market developed, and in the mid-sixties university
presses began to frequently publish short story compilations. Through the years, this market has developed into a strong
part of many university press operations. In 1981, though, The University of Georgia Press added a new dimension to short
story publishing that helped authors make their way into the mainstream publishing world.
What The University of Georgia Press did was to develop an award where two (or sometimes more) winners were given
the opportunity to have a compilation of their short stories published in book form. The Flannery O’Connor Award is the
name of the prize and the first book came out in 1983. Over the years every winner has had the opportunity to publish a
book and in doing so is normally able to get the attention of publishing editors. Most winners come away with publishing
contracts from editors who were impressed by their short story work. The Flannery O’Connor Award has done great things
for short story writers over the years. In June The University of Georgia Press is paying tribute to the award winners by
publishing a book of selected short stories from each author.
East has done a great job of selecting works, in this collection, that reflect the best attributes of short stories. Each piece
has a personality of its own, and many of the stories address subjects, settings, occurrences and feelings that normally
don’t get covered in novels. For instance, Carole L. Glickfeld’s “What My Mother Knows’ develops a setting from late 1940s
Manhattan, and Deb^a Monroe’s “The Source of Trouble' is drawn from a young girl’s experiences a few days before her
first year of high school. This book shows how flexible authors can be with short stories and how in a few pages they can
produce strong messages or humor from their character’s daily lives. As with all types of compilations, it’s hard to give
a precise review of the whole work. This book, though, does contain some great stories and will probably make you wonder
how many more enjoyable stories are going unread because there is nowhere for them to be published.
Charles Weeks
Reckless Performance
Reckless is a dark comedy written by Craig Lucas. The Oxford College
of Emory University Drama Guild will perform the original play from April 1-
4 at 8 p.m. in Phi Gamma Hall on the Oxford Campus. The story goes as
follows: Lucinda Faulkner portrays Rachel Fitsimmons, a woman fleeing the
hitman hired by her husband. Standing in her nightgown at a gas station pay
phone she is rescued by Lloyd and Pooty, a physical therapist and his deaf-
mute, paraplegic wife. From there it gets even stranger as they come into
contact with such wild and wooly characters as political activists, psychia
trists, apologetic husbands and game show hosts. Reckless is the last of the
series of plays directed by Andy Irwin, Artist-in-Residence. Catch it while
you can. Tickets are $5.00 and you should call 404-727-4390 for reserva
tions and more information.
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613-8675
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A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County
Fran Thomas, University of C.^orgia Press