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Two Writers Return

Mary Clark & Merrie Snell on their NER “gap years”

December 27, 2018

Mary Clark

We publish work from writers at all stages of their writing lives—some just starting out, and others who’ve been at it for decades. Some come back to NER frequently, and others we never hear from again. In the past year or so, we published new stories by Mary Clark (“Many of the Men,” 38.1) and Merrie Snell (“Shipwreck Stories,” 39.1), two writers who’d published in NER in the nineties and whom we hadn’t heard from since. What were they up to during those years between publications? Were they still writing? Why the long gap?

Merrie Snell

Our fortieth anniversary seemed like a good time—or maybe just a good excuse—to reach out to Mary and Merrie and get the stories behind their stories. With just a few basic questions to get them started, they entered into a conversation about persistence and self-reliance, strategies for overcoming rejection, and the many ways of being a writer in the world.

Mary Clark says, “My little trick to deal with rejection is similar to how I handle rejection in dating: have another iron in the fire, so if an agent rejects your novel you’re like, That’s okay I’m seeing my new novel now anyway.”

And from Merrie: “I’ve still got a demon who visits now and then and hectors me with the negative inflection of ‘who cares,’ but I’ve learned to apply the question responsibly, productively. A demon thwarted can be a valuable thing.”

[Read the interview.]

Filed Under: 40th Anniversary: From the Vault, Behind the Byline, News & Notes Tagged With: Mary Clark, Merrie Snell

Many of the Men

Mary Clark

April 14, 2017

The Rose Laundry by Rebecca Pyle

Jackson’s in stop-and-go traffic on Dorchester Avenue with Darius in the back. They’re on their way to the chicken place, both of them regretting the lost opportunity to buy season tickets when Danny Ainge grabbed the last leg of the Big Three and all the good seats got taken.“Yeah, my buddy had four spots in the second row behind the basket, just waiting for my go-ahead to click Purchase. Right there. Where the players fall into the cameras,” Darius says.

“And over where the cheerleaders sit,” Jackson adds.

“Indeed. Over where the cheerleaders sit.”

They laugh and then they both ride quietly for a while. Jackson turns up the XM station he’s floating through a weak frequency in the car radio, and sees his passenger in the rearview mirror, nodding out the beat pensively to Sir Mix-a-Lot.

“Now that the Celtics be winning, nobody’s lettin’ go of that gravy,” Jackson muses.

“I’d rather watch games at home, you know, Jacks? I can do without all the distraction.”

“Not me.”

“The T-shirt cannon, the dance cam, the whole Jumbotron in general. You know what I’m sayin’?”

“The fanfare,” Jackson sums up his customer’s point.

“Yeah, the fanfare. The flashing lights, the kids everywhere, the leprechaun on the trampoline.”

“Yeah, what’s with the leprechaun? That’s some racist shit.”

“I know, huh? Lucky.”

“Riiiiiight. Lucky the Leprechaun.”

“Crazy-ass white people.”

“Oh yeah!” Jackson says when the next song comes on the radio, and turns it up. Both men jump in from the beginning, phrasing fast and wordy, spreading out the cluttered parts to prove they know them, then trailing off on the rest.

[read more]

 

Mary Clark has an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa, and has published poems and stories in Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Fiction, and other journals. She recently completed a novel about race, love, addiction, and urban renewal that takes place in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Many of the Men” borrows from an early chapter of that manuscript.

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Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Mary Clark

Cover art by Ralph Lazar

Volume 41, Number 4

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Writer’s Notebook

Writer’s Notebook—Field Dress Portal

Sarah Audsley

Writer’s Notebook—Field Dress Portal

Writing this poem was not a commentary on a rivalry between the sister arts—poetry and painting—but more an experiment in the ekphrastic poetic mode.

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