Volume 07, The Literary Edition
September 2021
Dear Readers,
Readability is to writing as drinkability is to wine. Conflict is tension; voice is momentum. And, of course, plot (as in vineyard) builds character. Whether it’s the linear precision of poetry, the tightly structured development of a short story, or the juicy flow of a novel, the careful selection of words and ideas is the foundation of good writing. Yet, too often, when it comes to wine writing, this is subordinate to simply conveying information.
It’s unusual for a publication to start breaking the rules before it’s even completed its first year. Yet here we are, doing what (we believe) no wine magazine has done before. In this volume, we bring you 11 pieces penned from published novelists to part-time poets. Here you’ll find personal essays, short stories, reflections, and verse spanning the range from an autumnal recognition of a greater power to a page-turning thriller that delves inside the mind of an expert wine forger.
The common theme, as ever at TRINK, is umlaut wines. But like all of our texts, creative and otherwise, it is also about so much more. Each artist has exposed a part of his or her soul to bring these pieces to light. This is, to quote one of our writers, “naked” writing.
Creative media encourage us to get outside the wine bubble, to use wine to look at life, not the other way around.
On a technical note, there are fewer external or explanatory hyperlinks than in our “regularly scheduled program” because for this issue, we are asking you, dear readers, to provide your own context, experience, and understanding to the texts as they are.
So pour yourself a glass of aged Lagrein and dig in to Liam Callanan’s short story, which features it. Or maybe you’re more in the mood for a silverwater Riesling as you read Alice Feiring’s confrontation with her “German problem”? Fall into one of many worlds in TRINK Vol. 07.
As ever, we welcome your feedback and suggestions. Drop us a line at [email protected]
Happy reading!
Paula Redes Sidore, Bad Honnef
Valerie Kathawala, New York City
