René Marzuk – Writers Resist

Welcome to our September 2022 issue

It’s been hot. Everything’s hot. Global temperatures, national temperaments—even the bees that hover at the birdbath’s edge are plunging into its waters, only to find them warmed by an unrelenting heat dome.

What to do?

Writers Resist offers a cool escape: Don a wet t-shirt, flop before a fan, and read this issue. In it, you’ll find featured works by the following writers and artists.

Katie Avagliano

Dia Calhoun

Heather Dorn

Zoë Fay-Stindt

Howie Good

Morning-meadow Jones

Flavian Mark Lupinetti

René Marzuk

Penny Perry

Tracy Stamper

Jennifer Swallow

Laura Grace Weldon

Please also join us in saying farewell to another beloved editor, and welcoming two new editors.

Ying Wu, one of our dedicated poetry editors, is moving on and shares the following: “It has been an honor and an inspiration to be part of Writers Resist. Since I joined in 2019, our community has grown. I’ve enjoyed the privilege of experiencing voices from all walks of life and parts of the globe—voices driven by hunger for compassion and dignity; by the will to thrive in the face of increasing planetary peril; by the urge to confront the pain of exploitation, intolerance, and subjugation. I believe we can create a better world by amplifying what drives us to speak out, as our words are the bridge between thought and action. I am so grateful to Writers Resist for helping to keep this bridge strong.”

We will miss you, Ying!

René Marzuk joins us as a poetry and prose editor. Accidentally born in Ukraine to Cuban parents, he grew up in Havana, Cuba, and migrated to the United States as an adult. Read a poem by René here.

Holly A. Stovall joins us as a prose editor. Currently writing a thesis for her MFA in Creative Writing at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, she has an MA in Women’s History and a PhD in Spanish Literature.

Read more about our new editors on our About page.

Then, in the relative cool of the evening, join us for an online reading of the September issue’s contributing writers—Saturday 15 October at 5:00 p.m. PACIFIC.

For the Zoom link, email K-B at kbgressitt@gmail.com.

Feeding the Goldfish

By René Marzuk

We walk to the edge of the pond at the far end
of the backyard—a pond dirty and small, slightly bigger
than a bathtub—filled with plants and fish carefully chosen
for their ability to survive off each other. “An ecosystem,”
you offer.

A grubby Eden. Colored shapes appear
and disappear within the murky waters, like spilled glass
marbles or ghosts drawn in sfumato, dodging our gifts.

Each crumb is an excess to be pondered. Kindness,
many a time, finds its way into a contract.
“How much, just how much exactly,
will this miracle cost us?”

René Marzuk is a poetry and prose editor at Writers Resist.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Rene is on the path to finish his English MA at the same institution and is already considering his next steps. Accidentally born in Ukraine to Cuban parents, he grew up in Havana, Cuba, and migrated to the United States as an adult.

He is currently a contributing editor of The Envious Lobster, a collection of nineteenth-century American children’s nature writing, where he focuses on rescuing the works of non-white and child authors. Overall, his research interests include Modern American literature and literary-cultural intertextuality, children’s literature, cultural studies, semiotics, code-switching practices, and articulation of marginal identities in literary works, among others.

Both inside and outside of academia, Rene has worn and continues to wear many hats. As of right now, he writes poetry, runs, takes pictures, and dabbles in drawing and illustration. He lives in High Point, North Carolina.

Photo credit: Image by Matt Artz on Unsplash.

A note from Writers Resist

Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.