The second issue of Route 7: A Vermont Literary Journal was officially released on Sat., Dec. 4, 2010 at the Artist In Residence Cooperative Art Gallery in Enosburg Falls. The new 60-page release showcases the work of more than 20 writers, painters and photographers from Vermont and beyond.
The new issue of Route 7 offers a divergent group of voices which both cast and illuminate shadows. Among the work from 23 contributing writers and artists, there are the friendship-inspired brutality of Nathaniel Davis’ short story, Cocaina, the gently bawdy reconciling of Ellen Chamerlin’s poem, “Lament for the Birds,” and two contrasting views of a long-abandoned gas station on St. Albans Bay shores – in the cover oil painting by Joshua Givens and the black-and-white photo by Alan Lampson.
For more information contact Route 7 co-editors Launie and Jedd Kettler at 524-9607 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We also welcome submissions for future issues.
The second issue is available at bookstores and shops around Northern Vermont, including Rail City Market, As the Crow Flies,The Eloquent Page, Better Planet Books, and Cosmic Bakery and Cafe in St. Albans, as well as The Flying Disc in Enosburg Falls.
Editor’s Note, Route 7, Vol. 1, No. 2
In 1977, when I was seven years old, my grandparents worked at a private school in Vermont. My grandfather was the caretaker and my grandmother worked in the kitchen. I had the run of the place, because the students were mostly gone when my grandparents would take me there to visit.
But there were a few students that stayed there over breaks, and the kitchen staff would feed them. One day a group of five students, who my grandmother and the other ladies in the kitchen knew, were talking about their band. I asked if I could go and watch them rehearse. My grandmother said to run along and have fun. The drummer had orange jeans and let me carry his sticks. I walked with the band into the auditorium and sat on the floor with my head against a front-row seat, watching them try to sort out a song. The more they tweaked the song, the more obsessed they became with finding the right sound, the right notes. The lead singer hoped I liked it.
People talk about “suffering for art” like it’s a joke, but watching those teenage boys, who were a decade-and-change older than I was, taught me a lesson that I have never forgotten.
Performing in public is difficult, no matter how forgiving your audience. Writing is similar to that band practice — trying to hit that right note, hoping not to let the audience down.
Hard work is slow work, and now there is a new expectation for writers to be quick — to be the first to post that blog, to get 10,000 hits before someone else can.
I love the story of Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, walking around with the script for the show’s pilot episode in his back pocket for a year while he perfected it. I’ve walked around with a poem in my back pocket for a year, so I understand his obsession.
I love this magazine because, even though most of the poems and stories were sent to us electronically, you can almost see the proverbial jean-pocket wrinkles on everything within its covers.
Launie Kettler, ROUTE SEVEN Co-Editor
