Truth giving writing is matter transformed. Words do not remain only words. The artist who offers a real experience to the one receiving the image or word is a person who transforms matter in a moment, inviting us to participate in the feast of experience and imagination. Like the chef, who with flames and spices, can alter the fruits of the earth, can change raw materials into warm, nourishing food, so too the artist offers a transformation of matter that pulls us around a shared experience.
In this issue, we hope you find that good art, like a good meal, is something that speaks to us despite our many differences and defeats. 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, through the generations, 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
& the LETTERS team
Cecelia Bellomy
Josiah A. R. Cox
Paige Foreman
Misty Kiwak Jacobs
Shirley Pan