News & Notes

A Game We Play

Leona Sevick on the Craft of Poetry

By her own admission, Leona Sevick is a latecomer to poetry. She was trained as an American literature scholar and never took a creative-writing class. We published her poem “I Eat My Words” in our October 2023 issue. Leona and I met on Zoom, and we spoke about bamboo wives, pregnancy pains, and poetic meter. At the end of our conversation she read her poem out loud, and even though I knew how it ended, I still got chills.

The Sun on TV

This month Sun readers wrote to tell us about their experiences with “Television,” but that’s not the first time we’ve explored the little — or perhaps big — black box that resides in (most) everyone’s living room. In fact we’ve printed Readers Writes on “Television” and “Watching TV” in 1979 and 1996, respectively, and have published poems, essays, interviews, and photo essays on the subject. Here are just a few memorable examples of when The Sun and its contributors crossed paths with the small screen.

Transformation

Jen Silverman on Writing for Different Mediums

I caught up with Jen Silverman late this summer, after we finished the edits on “Scale,” their new short story in our October issue. Jen was a few months into returning to New York City from Japan, where they worked as a producer and writer on the Max series Tokyo Vice. Jen had just switched gears back to theater, working on the book for a new musical with the composer Dave Malloy, workshopping an upcoming new play called Spain about propaganda, and wondering how long the writers’ strike in Hollywood (which has since ended) would keep a number of other projects on hold.

October: This Month in Sun History

A Look Back for Our 50^th Year of Publication

In October 1974 The Sun, still in its infancy and called The Chapel Hill Sun, reached a milestone. Its sixth issue featured a visual element that has defined its look for nearly fifty years: a black-and-white photograph.

Exploring Awe

Selections from the Archives

Mark Leviton’s September interview with Dacher Keltner explores awe, including its physical and psychological benefits. This month’s archive selections expound on the different ways we experience it — whether profound, unexpected, or painful.

Upcoming Readers Write Deadlines

Fantasy, Taste, and Uniforms

There’s still time to submit to Readers Write on “Fantasy”! Be sure to get your entry to us by October 1 — we’ve suggested a few potential prompts if you still need to get your creative juices flowing. And it’s never too early to start your first draft for an upcoming topic. . . .

The Other Side of the Portal

Speculative Fiction in The Sun

As part of our ongoing celebration of The Sun’s fiftieth year in print, we featured Debbie Urbanski’s 2016 short story “The Portal” as our September issue’s Dog-Eared Page. In my introduction to the story I noted that several other writers of science fiction and fantasy — too many to list in print — have also found their way into the magazine. But here in the more generous confines of our website I can share some of my other favorites from our archives.

New-Release Roundup

September 2023

As the weather cools and the days get shorter, curl up with one of these new books from Sun contributors. You’ll find descriptions from their publishers and links to some exclusive excerpts on The Sun’s website. Click the titles for more information, including purchase details.

A Brief and Highly Subjective Appreciation of Fifty Years of Sun Covers

One history that especially fascinates me is The Sun’s. On the wall of my office is a calendar the magazine sent to subscribers — all forty or so of them — at the beginning of 1977. It’s outdated and nonfunctional, but I hung it there because of its . . . well, grooviness. I like the horoscope-adjacent artwork and the handmade feel. It’s very much a product of its time, the kind of thing my brother would call “crunchy.”

September: This Month in Sun History

A Look Back for Our 50^th Year of Publication

On a quiet Friday afternoon in the summer of 2007, the phone rang in The Sun’s office. It was someone calling on behalf of a man on death row to inform us of a glaring error in an upcoming issue.