As we bear witness to this period of rapid change and global upheaval, our latest issue of Inventio features pieces that explore identity, culture, and the bittersweet and often strange nature of human relationships. In their intimate writings, our authors share flashes of beauty, awe-inspiring settings, and reflections on the delicate balance between life and death. They consider not only their place in the world, but also how their realities already position them within their larger contexts.
Our non-fiction pieces explore hidden perspectives, reshaping how we understand our human relationship to the natural or non-human world. Two of our poems examine the personal impacts of generational trauma and immigration, while another explores how identity is formed through history and memory. Our two fiction pieces take place ages apart—one follows a young soldier through the Vietnam war, and the other imagines an Earth centuries in the future, when time is running out for humanity. Our featured art piece evokes nostalgia through an intimate visualization of home and family ties. Altogether, these pieces move between real and imagined realities to take us into the worlds and lives of these fully realized characters.
Our team is truly grateful to all our incredible contributors for their beautiful work: Abbey Rain Hanson, Ambreen Rafique, Ani Teengs, Dylan Parkins, Illyria Volcansek, Lynnea Morales, Owen Argo, and Soraya Patel. Thank you for trusting us with your ideas. We hope that by inhabiting our author’s characters, our readers can develop new perspectives and make room for alternate ways of thinking and being.
Written by Chanelle Abi Najem, AEiC, and edited by Madeline Sanguedolce, EiC
In this personal essay, the author researches the death process of whales to create new ways of understanding death for humans.
Written in the second person, this piece of creative nonfiction sees a woman address the crystal cave she descends to explore.
In this tender, yet profound poem, the speaker paints a picture of a vibrant teaching lodge and while reckoning with the violence of colonialism.
In this poem, the speaker contemplates the past lives of objects in a thrift store while coming to terms with their identity.
This poem explores the inherent misogyny rooted in womanhood and the pain of exclusion caused by a lack of representation.
A speculative fiction piece that imagines humanity thousands of years in the future and follows one man as he tries to save the human race from our dying sun.
The story of a young soldier forced to participate in the Vietnam war and how he copes with the violence raging around him.
Ba’s Bedroom is a linocut that depicts the bedroom of the artist’s grandmother in their hope to “reclaim a sense of cultural connection.”