ISSUE 10.2 welcomeissue contents> poetry> fiction> nonfictionfeatured artistscontributorsinterviewsour editors Rick Andrews“The way he was using humor and disaffection to talk about something serious…there was a sense that if you could laugh about a thing that was difficult, you could steal a little bit of its power.” Eben E. B. Bein“I think poets have a sort of duty to honor and reinforce the mystical properties of their subjects as they write and edit.” Jeffrey DeVries“I know we live in a pessimistic age, but I’ll have none of it. Life is a gift that’s too precious, too magnificent, to waste time in cynicism or malice or ennui.” Orlantae Duncan“I am both black and queer, which informs how I move in the world—sometimes this means pushing the envelope on purpose in order to be seen or heard, but the very fact of my existence will always be controversial in our society.” Ria Parody Erlich“One of the things I rarely see addressed and thought was important to show is how some girls that age form ‘asexual crushes,’ as a friend of mine calls it, on other girls, which, in my opinion, can be helpful in the transition from girlhood to womanhood.” Bill Hollands“I am often drawn to moments in a poem where there is a sense of the poet discovering an emotion or reaching an understanding within the process of writing the specific details of the poem itself, and then conveying that discovery to the reader.” Maya Jacyszyn“When I think of ‘rebellion,’ I’m reminded of bravery, but also struggle, and the identity of a single mother’s daughter is heavily reflective of that.” Richard Jordan“I had no idea where the poem would go when I started to write it. When it arrived at that image I was surprised. I mean, I came up with it, but I wasn’t expecting to.” Gershom Mabaquiao“Most of the time, we kind of do that with our memories and experiences…We try to rearrange sequences of events in our life so things could make sense.” Martina Amate Perez“I sought inspiration from the people around me but also leaned on the beauty that is the universality of human emotion.” Christine Potter“I’ve written a couple of mildly naughty romances under the name Aletta Thorne (my great-grandma’s name and isn’t it a great romance nom de plume?)” Shelley Sheremeta“Learning begins in the home. Above and beyond protecting a child in every way possible, demonstrations of ethical and physical boundaries, and how to establish them, are an important part of raising a child.” Caroline Sutphin“I feel lucky as a writer to have such rich memories to pull from.” Erik Tschekunow“Sometime during college (probably while I was still focused on studying the sciences), I found writing was a way to enter a world in which the search for understanding was sufficient.” Renee Veldman“I learn so much from the youth that I work with as well and have found a heightened sense of playfulness and imagination in myself and my writing.” Ellen June Wright“Now that I’m retired, I have time to explore all the interests I didn’t have time for during my previous life and those topics show up in my poems.” Isabelle Ylo“It’s not enough to simply remember that something happened – I want to carefully preserve the emotions associated like I’m encasing a Jurassic mosquito in amber.”
