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The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: The Fault by Marcela Sulak


This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from The Fault by Marcela Sulak (Black Lawrence Press 2024).

GRANTED

You,   said   the   wife to   the  husband,  are  taking  me  for   granted.  What,
answered the husband, would you prefer to be taken  for? In  the  husband’s
pocket  were  a  wine  opener, a business card, and  a piece of  lint.  I  should
like  very  much  to   be  taken,  replied   the  wife,   after   combing    through
the   lemons,  for   an   impertinence. The  husband  looked  at  the  wife. The
husband  took off  his sunglasses  to  better  see  her  pupils. No, no, said the
wife.  Now  you are  taking me for an aperture, and  that  is  what  got us into
this  dark  place  to  begin  with.  To  illustrate,  she  listed  all  the times  that
she,  as an  aperture,  had  had  to illustrate. I  did  not  realize, answered the
husband,  that  an  aperture  was  so  dutiful.  The   husband  walked  twenty
paces and  sat down. He  began  carefully  to   persuade   some waves  into  a
harbor.  Then  he  directed  them  to  lap. Here, said the  husband  hopefully,
is  an  incipient  setting  for  an  impertinence.


Marcela Sulak (she/her) has authored five poetry collections, most recently, The Fault, and the National Jewish Book Awards Finalist, City of Skypapers (Black Lawrence Press, 2021). Her six translations of poetry collections from Czech, French, and Hebrew, have been recognized by PEN and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is managing editor of The Ilanot Review, and she directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing. 

Photo Credit: Sarah Deragon

Ezra Fox (they/he) is a Best of the Net nominee who lives and writes in San Francisco, CA and holds an MFA from Indiana University. A Breadloaf, Tin House, and Lambda Literary Fellow, and recipient of the Lili Elbe Memorial Scholarship, which recognizes transgender writers of exceptional promise, their work appears or is forthcoming in TriQuarterly, The Pinch, Fourteen Hills, Interim, and elsewhere. Additionally, they won the 2025 West Trade Review Poetry Prize, and currently serve as assistant judge of the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Apart from writing, Ezra maintains a daily practice of reconnecting with their inner child: roller-skating, playing drums, and enjoying animated films and theme parks. In quieter moments, they can be found sharing cups of tea and sweet treats with their beloveds. Learn more about Ezra at ezrafox.net or on Instagram @ezraxfox.


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