What is memory? It is found through our intimacy with the everyday objects we come to know and hold dear. Memories are found through the actions we take to re-create and forbid them. We find memories within the people, places, and things that are no longer there. Our submissions remind us of finding the meaning in the minutiae.
Our poetry selections hold memory through, perhaps more aptly, herstory: a poem about the writing and rewriting of sapphic literature and lesbian love; a poem about the marginalization of motherhood in the financial world; and a granddaughter reconciling her colonialist heritage through everyday objects.
Our fiction submissions see memory take the form of action. In one story, a group of fruit grapple with their dreams and a predetermined fate. Another presents danger and solidarity amongst sex workers, built from experience and bestowed for safety’s sake. Yet another story asks us what we really remember after we die.
Our non-fiction works are, in ways, anguished: a piece about a beautiful world but whose narrator cannot see the beauty in herself, a piece about a house plant in mourning, and a remembrance piece about a childhood car and the memories that left with it.
We would like to thank our wonderful contributors—Kaitlyn Langendoen, Lily Yu, Jaymi-Lynn Butler, Abigail Banda, Yoshita Sahdev, Lauren Russell, and Amely Su—for sharing their works with us. We hope you enjoy this issue.
—Written by Jonell Ebreo
Edited by Lisa Grieve, EiC
S-I-G-N H-E-R-E is organized like a financial document, split between two columns. The speaker discloses their experiences of being framed negatively without an attempt to understand her. It speaks to the ways in which single women with children are stereotyped by society.
The narrator recalls the car from their childhood, using it as an instrument to reflect on their most bittersweet memories.
A woman struggles to find the same beauty she admires in the world within herself.
A story about a boy who finds himself in a transparent situation, literally. Alex is confused to
discover that he unexpectedly dies in an accident involving his best friend and is in the afterlife. There, he encounters old acquaintances and ultimately discovers the secrets of life.
Op Zondag is about reflecting on privilege from colonization as the speaker grapples with their own history as a descendant from Holland. The poem makes use of Denglisch, which is the interspersing of German and Dutch words throughout English, as these languages and cultures pervade this poem.
A story about a young woman as she begins a new job. She faces uncomfortable situations and finds help from someone she might least expect it from.
A plant withstands the weight of grief and finds resilience in the aftermath.
Sapphic Triptych Tryst is inspired by triptych artwork and the poem is organized into three columns. It criticizes historical depictions of sapphic literature as the speaker artfully guides readers in the ways in which sapphic love has previously been hidden and erased from mainstream society, and how it is being repainted and rewritten.
A story about the adventures of sentient fruits. Apple is not like other fruits; confined to its
existence inside various crates, it has never seen the outside world. Newly purchased and not
ready to meet its fate, Apple plots its escape into the world before it can be eaten.