Boulevard No. 106, at this week’s Mag Stand, contains a fantastic and diverse slate of great writing, including the winning story from the 2019 Short Fiction Contest by Sena Moon; a Boulevard Craft Interview featuring a conversation between J. Ryan Stradal and Beth Dooley; new poetry from Shara McCallum, Eloisa Amezcua, Molly Brodak, Doug Ramspeck, Katherine Smith, Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet, Dara Elerath, and Jeannine Hall Gailey; new fiction from Ron Austin, Matthew Di Paoli, Christine Sneed, and Adam Roux; essays by Christine Spillson, Jodie Varon, Matt Jones, Brandon Parker, and Min Han; and a new symposium about re-examining history. Plus, fantastic and striking cover art by Xizi Liu!
Boulevard
Emi Nietfeld Investigates Her Past
Magazine Review by Katy Haas
Opening the Spring 2020 issue of Boulevard is the winner of the journal’s 2019 Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers: “My Mom Claims I Had a Drink with My Rapist. I Investigate.” by Emi Nietfeld.
In this piece, Nietfeld looks back to June 28, 2010 when she was raped while in Budapest and to the conversations she had with her mother immediately after and eight years later about the incident. This investigation focuses on the drink that Nietfeld did or didn’t have and the influence the drink had on her mother’s reaction to the rape.
Nietfeld breaks the piece up into sections, investigating in-person conversations, emails that were sent in 2010, and her old computer documents. After she presents the “evidence,” she breaks it down and discusses it. I found this approach to be interesting and impactful as she turns a critical eye on past conversations, her memory, and her relationship with her mother.
Not only is this piece a strong start to the issue, but it demonstrates why Nietfeld deserves to have won the Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers.
NewPages Mag Stand: Boulevard
In this issue: the winning essay from the 2019 Nonfiction Contest by Emi Nietfeld. An interview featuring Téa Obreht. A new fiction piece by Joyce Carol Oates, and a story by Mary Troy. The winning poems from the 2019 Poetry Contest by A.D. Lauren-Abunassar. A collection translated by Yifei Wu of the initial days of the Wuhan quarantine. Plus even more contributors which you can learn about at our Mag Stand.