Cleo Little
Feeling the Heat
Savannah heat makes a person want to turn their skin inside out and rinse off in whatever fountain happens to be close by.
A girl wearing a winter Spiderman face mask tends to stand out.
“Cleo Little” is the story inspired by this quick blink of an image.
Published by Litro Magazine (June 17, 2016), I remember the tranquil illustration paired with the story and my hopes fictional Cleo would someday find herself at such fictional peace.
“Cleo Little” came of age in a way back STORY workshop.
A Savannah synchronicity. Ann Napolitano led one of the several workshops I found myself as a participant at STORY. She is the author of “A Good Hard Look”, a novel exploring the literary history of Flannery O’Connor with the fictional what might have been. More here.
As a wide reader of all things Flannery O’Connor, I was thrilled.
Not so easy to find oneself thrilled these days, the latest soul crusher being the loss of NEA grant funding by hundreds of art groups of various sizes across the United States.
The National Endowment for the Arts “ … is the largest arts funder in the U.S. - yet one of the smallest federal agencies - … currently funded at $207 million.” Per the NEA fact sheet (2022), “ … the agency’s funding amounts to 0.003% of the overall budget.”
The elimination of the NEA itself requires a majority in Congress. Search your state profile here for what your community may soon be missing. (NPR, 5/3/2025).
Thank you for reading.
“Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose