Edward Porter’s story “Phil and Emily” explores this premise, imagining a liaison between the reclusive poet and the Union general Phillip Sheridan. As Porter explains in an interview with Bull City Press:
“I hit on a fiendish device, and walked around for a couple of days giggling to myself, ‘Yeah, tell the truth but tell it slant.’ I take Ms. Dickinson’s advice as gospel: it’s her legend I’m poking fun at. I’ve always wanted to see her portrayed as a sex-fiend. Maybe I don’t trust anyone who isn’t manifestly a sex-fiend, and I’m trying to bring her down to my level.”
Porter’s work has appeared in Best New American Voices 2010, Colorado Review, Booth, and Inch. We’re very happy to report that we’ll be featuring one of his stories in our Fall issue, due out in October.