I am delighted to introduce “The Cu(l)t” by Ananda Naima González to readers of Tupelo Quarterly. This prose piece features an interview between interrogator Ruth and interviewee, and former cult member, Luna on a segment of live TV. As the interview goes on, the reader senses the ever-growing tension in the clash between Western views and the commune’s perspective on the meaning of faith and all that is sacred. Readers will find religious and mythological parallels in defining mystical matters as seeing “things that the naked eye alone cannot perceive,” as well as a critique of Western storytelling as drama-driven and Western society as dominated by “fear and plastic and the endless accumulation of more and more meaningless things.”
Ananda Naima González is a writer, educator, multidisciplinary artist, and performer residing in Harlem, NY. She carries a BA and an MFA from Columbia University, in poetry and fiction respectively, and has taught at both Columbia and Gotham Writers Workshop. Her words have appeared in BOMB, McSweeney’s, Catapult, Apogee, The Southern Review, Bellingham Review, Lampblack, Waxing & Waning, and Twin Bird Review. She has been a finalist for awards granted by Gulf Coast Journal, LitMag, Indiana Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly, among others. Her mission is to honor the inherently sacred ritual of living. In addition to writing, she is also a professionally trained dancer and an accomplished choreographer and filmmaker.