The Cincinnati Review has selected a nonfiction work by Davis & Elkins College Professor of English Dr. Bill King for inclusion in its online series miCRo. The platform features shorter poems and flash fiction. literary nonfiction and hybrid works.
King’s “Why I’m Caching a Gallon of Water near the Chimney Top Outlook of North Fork Mountain” offers a brief meditation on mortality, faith and friendship.
In commenting on King’s piece, Associate Editor Taylor Byas says, “I would argue that grief never goes away, but returns in waves, changing its shape each time. Bill King’s ‘Why I’m Caching a Gallon of Water near the Chimney Top Outlook of North Fork Mountain’ succeeds in capturing this phenomenon, the anaphoric and lyric prose a perfect metaphor for grief’s slippery persistence. The emotional tension of this piece builds with each repetition while its steady rhythm keeps the reader afloat. King helps us ride the wave of grief to the shore, where it breaks over us, then retreats before it comes again.”
The online presentation https://www.cincinnatireview.com/micro/micro-why-im-caching-a-gallon-of-water-near-the-chimney-top-outlook-of-north-fork-mountain-by-bill-king/ also features audio of King reading his work.
“I’m happy that this odd little piece found a home at The Cincinnati Review, a journal that has published so many writers whom I admire. The ‘miCRo Series’’ focus on very short literature offers a great library of good short reads and I love its ‘full experience’ audio visual, and print format,” King said.
A member of the D&E faculty since 1996, King is chair of the Division of Humanities. A Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the 2021 Heartwood Poetry Prize, King’s work has been published in many journals and anthologies, including 100 Word Story, Kestrel, Naugatuck River Review, Still: The Journal, and Appalachian Review. He grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, and holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Georgia. His chapbook, from Finishing Line Press, is “The Letting Go” (2018). His first full-length poetry collection, “Bloodroot,” will be released in 2023 (Mercer University Press).
Since its inception in 2003, The Cincinnati Review has published many promising new and emerging writers as well as Pulitzer Prize winners and Guggenheim and MacArthur fellows.
Dr. Bill King
