Latest issue of Conjunctions, Bard College’s Celebrated Literary Magazine, Features New Work by Joyce Carol Oates, Colin Channer, Allegra Hyde, Yxta Maya Murray, Anna Badkhen, Cole Swensen, Can Xue, Frederic Tuten, and Many Others
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Conjunctions:80, Ways of Water, the latest issue of the innovative literary magazine published by Bard College which has been in print for more than 40 continuous years, has just been released. This special issue of Conjunctions explores the nature of water in our lives and those of our fellow beings. “Mundane as it may sound, what a miracle it is to drink a glass of water,” writes Conjunctions editor Bradford Morrow. “How rare a privilege to hike to the boggy spring of a creek or visit the silty delta of a grand river. . . Together with all animals on earth—itself largely covered by oceans—we live in, on, around, above, near, and because of water.” The issue collects 33 essays, stories, plays, and poems that converge on a central existential idea—“engage and learn the ways of water and you may flourish, but betray rivers, oceans, fjords, icebergs, water in any form, and you are ultimately betraying yourself.”
Edited by novelist and Bard literature professor Morrow, Conjunctions:80, Ways of Water features new work by Colin Channer, Joyce Carol Oates, Allegra Hyde, Yxta Maya Murray, Anna Badkhen, Heather Altfeld, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Cole Swensen, Julia Elliott, Can Xue, Lindsey Drager, Danielle Dutton, Leila Philip, Frederic Tuten, and many others. Through fiction and poetry, ecological and climate writing, in a multitude of genres, Ways of Water brings together a wide community of writers to plumb this most essential matter so basic to the survival of all flora, all fauna on this fragile water-blue planet.
Additional contributors to Ways of Water include Kristin Posehn, Elizabeth Robinson, Ryan Flaherty, Susan Stewart, Jessica Campbell, Jess Arndt, Ryan Habermeyer, Sangamithra Iyer, Michael M. Weinstein, Shelley Jackson, C. Michelle Lindley, Zêdan Xelef, Quincy Troupe, Hedley Twidle, Karen Heuler, Catherine Imbriglio, Rebecca Lilly, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Bronka Nowicka.
The Washington Post says, “Conjunctions offers a showplace for some of the most exciting and demanding writers now at work.”
Published twice yearly by Bard College, Conjunctions features innovative fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by emerging voices and contemporary masters. For four decades, Conjunctions has challenged accepted forms and styles, with equal emphasis on groundbreaking experimentation and rigorous execution. Morrow won PEN America’s 2007 Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing and the 2022 Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Lord Nose Award, given in recognition of a lifetime of superlative work in literary publishing. In 2020, Conjunctions received the prestigious Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. The judges noted, “Every issue of Conjunctions is a feat of curatorial invention, continuing the Modernist project of dense, economical writing, formal innovation, and an openness to history and the world.” Named a “Top Literary Magazine” of 2019, 2020, and 2021 by Reedsy, the journal was a finalist for the 2018, 2019, and 2021 ASME Award for Fiction and a recipient of the 2023 CLMP Capacity Building Grant. In addition, contributions to recent issues have been selected for The Best American Essays (2018, 2019), The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses (2022, 2023), Best American Experimental Writing 2020, Best Small Fictions 2019, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2019, and The Best American Short Stories (2021, 2022).
For more information on the latest issue, please visit conjunctions.com/print/
About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year, residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in more than 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 13 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 163-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
