Why You Should Collect K. Uwe Dunn

I don't know what the K. stands for but it feels very Kafkaesque. K. is not the first writer to step out with an initial, and it may bode well for his future success. Besides that, there are many legitimate reasons to collect K. Uwe Dunn, a former journalist who has a master’s in painting. Not the least of these is the fact that he also writes in German. You can check out his author bio in the NFT package, and you can find other published works by K. Uwe Dunn on the internet. But they are not NFTs!

For me, the best reason to collect this NFT is that it rose to the top of our submission pile on its own merits. “Connie and Paula” is a banger.

About the Atticus Review Submission Process

I joined Atticus Review as the editor in January 2025, and this is the first time I was involved in an open submission period. David Olimpio, the publisher, walked me through the steps of the submission review process. I find it fascinating to be on the other side. Although I’ve never been a hardcore submitter (I write novels), I have assembled my fair share of applications and entries on Submittable. But Submittable faces both ways. Writers lob their talent and hard work from one side of the orange wall. Editors, waiting right on the other side, catch the spears and try to figure out how hot they are.

Whoever is acting as judge opens the pieces one by one, reads them, reads the bio and any available artist statement, then votes yes, no, or maybe. For me, it's so much easier to vote no than yes. There are many no’s inside me, but only because they are clearing the way for one huge YES. David, I learned, is a fan of maybe. It's a personality style, probably. I didn't assign maybe to anything I read.

Back to “Connie and Paula.” I'm going to be totally honest, I said no to this piece in the first round, but David made a compelling case for it. The reason I initially rejected “Connie and Paula” had nothing to do with the quality of the writing. It’s simple, not over- or under- thought and written. It's funny, gritty, beautifully observed and touching.

But the story is set in a memory care unit at a nursing home. And when I first read this submission, my ninety-year-old mother had just gotten kicked out of her second nursing home for violent behavior. She attacked a nurse with a pair of scissors. I had been on the phone with my brother and sister for days trying to figure out what to do for her, and about her. The last thing I wanted to think about was a nursing home.

Fortunately, David talked me into giving “Connie and Paula” another chance. I put my personal life aside and gave “Connie and Paula” a second read, then a third. That was just the beginning, because from there I went into several back and forth revisions with K. “Connie and Paula” shows me more truth every time I read it. Ironically, I’ve come to see that the setting, the memory care unit, is the unique, powerful detail that takes “Connie and Paula” to the next level. 

So, collect it please.

Here’s how to set up your NFT wallet in a browser or on mobile and put a little crypto in it.

Here’s how you buy the NFT in your browser and on mobile.

Thank You for Submitting Your Work

David and I want to thank everyone else who submitted to the open reading period this past summer. We read so much fantastic work. One thing about creative nonfiction is that you learn about humanity when you dive into it. I’ve always known it’s hard to be a human. It’s not breaking news. And your submissions didn’t suggest otherwise. Atticus is grateful for the opportunity to get real with all of you.

The Woodblock Process

Rather than close this newsletter with a pat cliché about acceptance and rejection, I will make one more pitch for why you should collect this NFT. It's the fifth NFT in our first series, which we started in January 2025. For expedience and affordability, I illustrated the first five. I was a baby woodblock carver when we started. I had taken one online class which told me the best supplies to get and how to not cut off my thumb. This first batch of NFT illustrations is primitive, raw, even crude. But we are switching to a new artist (or artists) in 2026. So, snap up my crude, raw, rough, naïve, outsider, fauvist NFT art while you can! I've already gotten less crude … like The Rolling Stones.

Boo Trundle
Editor