Lit/Pub #IV - The Wake Up Issue - Spring2024
The magazine of Professor Andrea di Robilant literary class at The American University of Rome. "Last year’s issue of Lit/Pub was about the slow return to a post-Covid world. This year, the initial theme was dreams – time to get on with it and think about the future. But the more we discussed what to put in the issue, the more it became apparent that a lingering wariness was still in the air, even a certain complacency. Hence the exhortatory title – The Wake Up Issue – which Isabella Klepikoff has deftly captured in the design of this year’s cover: a wolf resting by a Roman fountain. He looks to be resting, but his lively green eyes tell us he is stirring back to action."
The magazine of Professor Andrea di Robilant literary class at The American University of Rome.
"Last year’s issue of Lit/Pub was about the slow return to a post-Covid world. This year, the initial theme was dreams – time to get on with it and think about the future. But the more we discussed what to put in the issue, the more it became apparent that a lingering wariness was still in the air, even a certain complacency. Hence the exhortatory title – The Wake Up Issue – which Isabella Klepikoff has deftly captured in the design of this year’s cover: a wolf resting by a Roman fountain. He looks to be resting, but his lively green eyes tell us he is stirring back to action."
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Guest Essay<br />
I am Doing Well, Objectively Speaking<br />
By Autumn McIntyre<br />
When I was 8, I wanted to be a weathercaster.<br />
Every evening I watched Jackie Purcell of Anchorage’s Channel 2 news. I sat in front of the<br />
television and imagined myself on the screen as she pointed at the map of Alaska and talked about<br />
snow patterns.<br />
When I was 10, my mom told me that I should be an accountant.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y make a lot of money, Autumn. It’s a very stable job.”<br />
When I was 13, I wanted be a writer.<br />
I realized people actually made a living writing books. Books didn’t pop out of thin air! I told<br />
my mom that I wanted to be a creative writing major, and she told me that I would make no money<br />
and would be in debt for the rest of my life.<br />
My mother emigrated from China to pursue the American Dream. <strong>The</strong> success of her children<br />
became her dream. She didn’t want me to end up like her: working in retail, earning just enough<br />
to make ends meet. She didn’t want me to end up like my father: hauling tractor trailers around the<br />
country and harming my body to make a living.<br />
I agreed with her. I couldn’t afford to fail.<br />
I cycled through a lot of dreams over the following years: lawyer, politician, businesswoman.<br />
Most of these were inspired by hyperfixations from different television shows. I watched Suits and<br />
decided that I would be Jessica Pearson. I watched Scandal and thought that I would have a career in<br />
D.C. like Olivia Pope. I didn’t really have a fictional role model for a businesswoman. That was always<br />
really my mom’s idea.<br />
My dreams eventually circled back to what I really wanted to be: a writer. Throughout the<br />
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