Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

The shape of the world changed drastically within the last year. Life, in many ways that we knew it, shattered, and while the pieces can be picked up, brushed off, and seamed back together, it is slow work, and work that takes many hands. Recovery is a process, and often a puzzle. It takes more than one set of eyes, every now and then, to see where the right piece will fit—an especially challenging task considering so many of us now have been isolated for so long.

But there are still ways in which we reach out, in which we can bring our hands together to sort through the pieces. Through literature, through art, we can come together with strangers leagues apart and sort through any wreck and any debris and bring together a whole picture. In that picture there will be pain, like loved ones living in threatening situations such as in Jamie Danielle Logan’s “To Help a Stranger.” There will be moments of childlike wonder where young boys try to learn how to fly as well as sweet desires, such as those expressed in Megan J. Arlett’s “LOUISIANA’S SATURDAY NIGHTS.” We all want puns, we all want to rabble rouse our friends out of bed. We all want to come together and to see the world finally taking shape as something maybe not quite what it was, but maybe, once it’s shaped, not so bad.

Through this issue, we hope we can give you glimpses of the strangers you’ve been missing. A touch of someone else’s hand as a new world takes shape. A world, hopefully, somewhat softer and sweeter for how we will appreciate the $10 dollar sushi we missed. An Exquisite Corpse, stitched together from our favorite lines with our favorite people.

Thank you for being with us. Sincerely,

Kym Cunningham and Couri Johnson,
Co-Editors-in-Chief