North Carolina Literary Review Online Winter 2022

Page 76

76

NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W

Winter 2022

FINALIST, ALEX ALBRIGHT CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZE

Love – and Mushrooms and Zooms – In the Ruins BY CAROLINE RASH Rumor has it, the first living thing to emerge from Hiroshima’s blasted landscape was a matsutake mushroom. It was mid-March, remember? The New Year’s Eve champagne bubbles had long burst. I had just transitioned my ninth-grade English class to online learning. No more 5:30 a.m. alarms, but rather long hours staring at a computer screen, interspersed with terrifying transmissions from the White House Rose Garden. At first, we all had hope. On my laptop, I still have a folder labelled “Two Week Online Lesson Plans for Coronavirus.” In this strange space, I began reading about matsutake mushrooms. An offhand recommendation from a friend. I ordered The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, a nearly three-hundred-

CAROLINE RASH’s poetry has been published in Connotation Press and an essay in Decider. She was a finalist in Peauxdunque Review's Words & Music Writing competition. She currently teaches high school English and is an Associate Editor for the South Carolina Review. She grew up between North and South Carolina and earned a BA in English Language and Literature from Clemson University and an MFA in Poetry from Rutgers University. The quilts featured throughout this essay were created by the author’s grandmother, Sue Holder Rash, of Boiling Springs, NC.


Articles inside

“The Black Condition” in Hell of a Book article cover image
“The Black Condition” in Hell of a Book
6min
pages 12-13
Borrowed Light article cover image
Borrowed Light
3min
pages 14-15
People Constructed of Pain and Grief article cover image
People Constructed of Pain and Grief
6min
pages 16-17
Mixed Messages: A Southern Childhood article cover image
Mixed Messages: A Southern Childhood
4min
pages 18-19
New Fiction Reckons with Landscape of Change article cover image
New Fiction Reckons with Landscape of Change
10min
pages 20-22
Betrayal article cover image
Betrayal
2min
page 23
They Have Been at Something Some Carrion, a Deer, or Such article cover image
They Have Been at Something Some Carrion, a Deer, or Such
6min
pages 24-25
First Published Novel by a Member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Receives 2021 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award article cover image
First Published Novel by a Member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Receives 2021 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award
7min
pages 26-27
Linking the Common and the Uncanny article cover image
Linking the Common and the Uncanny
9min
pages 28-30
You Can Come Home Again – and Be Lauded Jim Grimsley Receives 2021 Hardee Rives Dramatic Arts Award article cover image
You Can Come Home Again – and Be Lauded Jim Grimsley Receives 2021 Hardee Rives Dramatic Arts Award
3min
page 31
The Eye article cover image
The Eye
2min
page 48
An Unsung Legend article cover image
An Unsung Legend
9min
pages 49-51
More Than a Haircut article cover image
More Than a Haircut
3min
pages 52-53
Stories about Growing Up Black and Female in America article cover image
Stories about Growing Up Black and Female in America
6min
pages 54-55
Ghazal: Reflection and We Think of Night as Still article cover image
Ghazal: Reflection and We Think of Night as Still
4min
pages 56-57
A Roving Search for Provisions of Any Kind article cover image
A Roving Search for Provisions of Any Kind
5min
pages 58-59
A Reading Full of Light article cover image
A Reading Full of Light
5min
pages 60-61
Why I Flinch at the Thought of Daylight Squandered article cover image
Why I Flinch at the Thought of Daylight Squandered
3min
pages 62-63
Clichés article cover image
Clichés
3min
page 67
Charting Grief, Seeking Solace article cover image
Charting Grief, Seeking Solace
9min
pages 68-70
Debut Novel by Halli Gomez Wins NC AAUW Award article cover image
Debut Novel by Halli Gomez Wins NC AAUW Award
2min
page 71
Turning Reality on Its Head article cover image
Turning Reality on Its Head
15min
pages 72-75
Love – and Mushrooms and Zooms – in the Ruins article cover image
Love – and Mushrooms and Zooms – in the Ruins
20min
pages 76-82
Being Christian, Being Jewish article cover image
Being Christian, Being Jewish
7min
pages 84-85
J.J. – 1985 article cover image
J.J. – 1985
3min
pages 86-87
A Year of Collected Notes: Storytelling Sublime article cover image
A Year of Collected Notes: Storytelling Sublime
7min
pages 88-89
Wintering article cover image
Wintering
3min
pages 90-91
The Transformational Potential of Writing article cover image
The Transformational Potential of Writing
7min
pages 92-93
Calling the Bluff on Show-Don’t-Tell article cover image
Calling the Bluff on Show-Don’t-Tell
7min
pages 96-97
n Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues article cover image
n Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues
1hr
pages 102-132