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 silence of abuse within institutions; reckon with a history of disappeared names and cultures; and be absorbed into a short story that heralds the art of waiting.
Inside this issue, you’ll find moving essays about trying to reconcile a relationship with an ailing parent; poems about the pains of growing up, the failures of the healthcare system, the joys of culinary achievements, the promise of imagining alternate endings for ourselves, and more. There are pieces that explore the impossible reality of living undocumented, and lyrical essays that dance between the devastation of what was and what could be. This cohort’s work speaks boldly and directly to a question posed in our original call for submissions: “What are we even waiting for, and where is the line between resting, recuperating, giving up, and irresponsible avoidance?” The answers and curiosities that arose from these contributors’ pieces will linger with you long after you’ve finished reading.
Our editors had these words to share about our contributors:
“What struck me with Sara Bawany’s piece, ‘Janamaz,’ is how she is able to shine a light on intracommunal community child predation, which is never an easy story to hear, but remains necessary in calling for accountability, change, and healing. Her poem is cinematic, evocative, and tense as the narrative rewinds, visually reinforced with a poignant conclusion that reminds us where our focus and ire should be pointed — with those whose voices are silenced.”
—Elizabeth Upshur, poetry editor- “Kayla Blau’s ‘Holy Land, Holy Life’ is one of the most urgent and timely personal essays you will read this year. Its powerful message in support and solidarity for Palestine — from the POV of a Jewish American woman — rings above the din of helplessness and despair that too often threatens to overcome the disillusioned. Blau’s voice is both unwavering in its convictions and yet full to the brim with empathy and compassion across lines of difference. I am still floored by the emotional breadth I glimpsed from Kayla both in our seamless collaborations and in the powerfully sprawling essay itself.”
—Briana Gwin, senior prose editor - “Celeste Chan‘s essay, ‘Not Vanishing,’ moved me immensely in its story about attempting to salvage a relationship with a parent who is quietly disappearing in plain sight. Her prose is vibrant and visceral, and the tenderness with which she holds her father’s stories and her own family history is palpable in every measured word on the page and every action off it.”
—Joyce Chen, executive director - “Kurt David‘s poem expertly captures the bouncing rhythm, snappy rhetoric, and snarky but scathing tone of a bustling news room. David’s writing feels delightfully like a good gossip session with your smartest friend.”
—Emilie Menzel, senior poetry editor - “In precise, lyrical tenderness, Mo Fowler conjures and holds the fresh ache of emotional disarray. Fowler’s deft lines find luminosity in the grit of our quotidian.”
—Emilie Menzel, senior poetry editor - “What I love about Christian Hooper‘s poem is how he envisions and celebrates the creation and recollection of this meal — this golden fried chicken — as an epic. His speaker wrests culinary joy in the midst of an unequitable world both past and present, enjoining the speaker to his parents, their parents, and so on, as a Herculean feat of the senses.”
—Elizabeth Upshur, poetry editor - “The open form of ‘Fictional Finalism’ allows the reader to peer into unspoken glimpses of memory. Through a careful orchestral balancing of images and tones, Kathy Jiang‘s writing builds and spills open into heartbreak.”
—Emilie Menzel, senior poetry editor “What I immediately noticed about Kate Kastelberg‘s poem is the preoccupation with primal communication and empathy, the lifeline that allows her human speaker and whale friend to bond and rediscover a method of care and community between species. It is a joy to follow along and see her working on the page as a storyteller, each moment is captured and breathed in, drawing you deeper into the narrative and towards something hopeful, mystical, and ecologically positive.”
—Elizabeth Upshur, poetry editor- “kyung draws from personal narrative and worldviews to make something that flows seamlessly, even as each turn of phrase is so considered. I was drawn to the poem because of its core of care, a reminder that all we have is each other.”
—Stuti Pachisia, poetry editor - “I was drawn into Aline Mello‘s work because of their honest portrayal of the cost of being undocumented in America. The stop-motion diary entries in ‘Journal’ and the wry parental caution of ‘Good Immigrant Girl’ chronicle how enmeshed these costs are; what we pay to wait on citizenship.”
—Stuti Pachisia, poetry editor
- “To possess the uncanny gift of seeing the interconnectedness in all things is truly rare, but it was precisely this quality that drew me into Nadine Monem’s work from her first few words. I eagerly followed her every branching trail of thought and image, my trust unwavering that she would guide me gently and wisely back into the clarity of an old and new beginning. “
—Briana Gwin, senior prose editor
- “Along with the sheer delight I experienced in coming back to this story again and again as its editor, I found myself also reliving the infectious joys and heartaches that come with being enveloped as a captivated reader time and again too. Goeun Park’s words have a way of both removing you from your body and returning you to yourself all at once — experiencing a depth of empathy you didn’t know you were capable of until you are looking through a window out into otherness, which is somehow also a mirror into your own soul. “
—Briana Gwin, senior prose editor
- “Mark Spero‘s work manages that rare thing: being humorous while being entirely earnest. I read ‘On the Off Chance…’ & ‘What Are The Boys…’ as sister poems that speak to each other as much as they speak to you, the reader. These poems wait on community, answers and joy; the ironic truth being that by reading these poems, you complete this wait.”
—Stuti Pachisia, poetry editor - “Sabs Stein‘s short story, ‘The Art of Waiting,’ is a parable for our times disguised as a meta-dystopian, futuristic steampunk marvel. I was so taken by their ability to create an entire world in three short sections while also implicating the reader in a meaningful manner, asking of us: When is it not just okay, but necessary, to wait? And what are we missing out on when we forget about the simple beauty of stillness?”
—Joyce Chen, executive director - “What drew me to Jessica Yuru Zhou‘s poem ‘{}s of history’ was the title, as it is one of the rarer punctuation marks in use, used far more often in music theory or computer programming, meaning simultaneous musical notation or to impart unique information in an established code. This is a beautifully self aware poem that flirts with both of these concepts, bringing in Adrienne Rich to encompass the complexities of being human and articulating self as what Zhou calls, ‘a small and very needful part of history.'”
—Elizabeth Upshur, poetry editor - “When someone calls a writer brave, they are usually referring to a writer who has allowed themselves to be seen by their readers. But Theodora Ziolkowski is brave entirely differently, in that she allows her readers to witness her own self-reflection, the most vulnerable act of all. Still, the greatest gift of her work is that somehow Ziolkowski allows enough room for readers to see themselves in her words too. ”
—Briana Gwin, senior prose editor
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At this time, we publish just one issue a year, featuring 12-16 new voices, with the second half of the calendar year dedicated to our Community Anthologies program and our Digital Residency program. These 16 contributors submitted to our call back in November and December of last year, and have been working on their pieces with our editors over the past three months.
Explore the issue by author, by genre, or by title. Read each piece more than once or save one for a rainy day; let our contributors’ words get under your skin in the best way possible. We know we’re biased when we say this, but the waves that these 16 contributors are making with their work are incredibly powerful.
