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I received word that Curtis has passed. Here is an interview I conducted with him some years ago:

An afternoon with the Atlantic fiction editor

The Wilderness House Literary Retreat Hosts Atlantic fiction editor C. Michael Curtis.

On a sweltering early summer morning Somerville poet Linda Haviland Conte and I were ferried by golf cart up a long and winding forested hill to the “Wilderness House Literary Retreat,” in Littleton, Mass, to spend the day with C. Michael Curtis, the fiction editor of The Atlantic magazine. The Atlantic is moving from its long-time home in Boston to Washington, D.C. It will now be publishing its fiction and poetry in one large annual issue; rather than individual issues. C. Michael Curtis, who will edit this annual, gave the group in attendance a sneak preview of the issue and an illuminating discussion of his life in the rarefied environs of the literary world.

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Scott Ruescher has been placing new poems in the Common Ground Review, the Latin American Literary Review, Nine Mile, Pangyrus, and other places, and working on a follow-up to his 2017 book, Waiting for the Light to Change. Retired from working at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and from teaching in the BU Prison Education Program, he writes publicity materials for The Neighborhood Developers in Chelsea and helps teach citizenship and ESOL classes at Immigrant Learning Center in Malden.

Finalists will participate in public interviews beginning February 6; School Committee seeks to select new Superintendent by March 2023

The Somerville Public School District is one step closer to hiring a new Superintendent following the announcement last night of three finalists for the open position. At a special meeting on January 30, the Somerville School Committee’s Superintendent Search Screening Subcommittee announced that it has narrowed the pool of 27 applicants down to three finalists:

The MassHire Metro North Workforce Board (MNWB) was awarded $240,000 through the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education’s Connecting Activities grant to fund 160 high school students in high-quality STEM internships with local employers. Interns will be students from our partner high schools in Chelsea, Burlington, Malden, Reading, Revere, Somerville, and Woburn.

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the city’s Department of Racial and Social Justice (RSJ) today invite Somerville residents and workers to apply to fill three open community seats on the Public Safety for All Task Force. Task force members will review feedback from thousands of community members, as well as expert testimonials and independent data to craft public safety policy recommendations for the City of Somerville. Applications are available starting Monday, January 30, at 8:00 a.m. and must be received by Friday, February 24, at 7:00 p.m.

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and Ward 7 Councilor Judy Pineda Neufeld invite you to a virtual community meeting to learn about the city’s reconstruction of the intersection at Powder House Boulevard and Alewife Brook Parkway. 

Monday, February 13, 2023, 6 p.m.  

All interested persons are invited to a public hearing on the draft proposal for the license renewal of Comcast Cable. The proposal sets guidelines for operations, service provision, licensing fees, and in-kind and capital contributions to the City via a federally regulated process for municipal issuance of local cable franchise licenses. The City of Somerville, by the Mayor as the statutory Cable License Issuing Authority, will hold the Cable License Renewal Public Hearing on Monday, February 13, 2023, at 6 p.m. The hearing will be virtual and can be accessed online via Zoom or by phone. The draft proposal is available for public inspection at the Office of the City Clerk at City Hall, 93 Highland Ave. or online at somervillema.gov/2023licenserenewal.