Truth giving art is matter transformed. Like the chef who, with flames and spices, can alter the fruits of the earth and change raw materials into warm, nourishing food, so too the artist offers a transformation of matter. Each one invites us to a shared moment; each welcomes us to participate in the feast of experience and imagination.
In this issue, we hope you find that good art, like a good meal, is something that draws you in and allows you to linger. As Nate Lee writes, “Food could, even if only temporarily, gather the pieces and hand them back to us in a bowl.” Or Ellen Spero’s reminder that family gathers us through time, and that “despite everything, there will be cake.” And maybe like a good bottle of wine, you will find in these pages, that “your life, friends, is pouring” like a river or a cup overflowing. In these pages, a poet calls us to the long debate “concerning peach and plum and uses of the Sabbath.”
Take, read, rest, and eat.
-Alexandra Barylski, Editor
POETRY
Chelsea Dingman
Ryan Harper
Brad Holden
Samuel Loncar
Poetry as the Last Refuge of Metaphysical Scoundrels:
A Conversation with Stevens and the Comedian C
Christie Towers
There Are So Many Places We Are Not Allowed To Be
PROSE
Liesl Basile, non-fiction
Myth and Modernity:
Is There A Place For Sleeping Beauty?
Nate Lee, non-fiction
Trauma, Food, and the Eucharist as Ancestor Worship
Carolyn Oliver, fiction
Ellen Spero, non-fiction
In Spite of Everything, There Will Be Cake