To whom do you pray for nourishment and justice in the face of oppression?

How have video games helped you survive our present world and envision new ones?

What are your impossible queer dreams?

What are the different gestures an ending can hold?

Xu Li, Isaiah Yonah Back-Gaal, dezireé a. brown, and Para Vadhahong

We’re excited to introduce 16 new voices to the TSW community. The beginning of a new season marks the arrival of many things long-awaited. Graduations, arrivals, departures, and quietude. Get-togethers, travel plans, verdicts, and new commitments made. It’s a moment ripe for change and movement, which is why we’re so thrilled to — at long last — share the work of our 16 contributors for Issue 17: The Cost of Waiting. And, as the saying goes, this was well worth the wait. Within this issue, you’ll read about one contributor’s experience waiting in the liminal space of government bureaucracy; simmer on poems about climate change and grief and the loud…

Our editorial team has been working closely with our Issue 17 contributors to bring their pieces to life. At the Seventh Wave, our annual magazine is at the heart of everything we do, which means our editorial team is the heartbeat that keeps it thrumming. Beginning in 2020, we expanded our team from a core group of three to a larger team of 12; since then, we’ve brought on numerous past contributors to serve as editors for the magazine, a tradition that we see as a way for writers and artists to keep paying it forward. For Issue 17: The Cost of Waiting, we enlisted the help of our brilliant…