Editor's Letter

by Katie Strine

When read as a collection, this issue is full of paradoxical thinking. Finding peace in a world of violence. Occupying a physical body with a spiritual soul. Inflicting self-harm or receiving abuse. For every story with color, there is one without; for every resolution of living, there is one of death.

 Jen Hallaman writes, “This deep / into winter, everything is dead, or will be soon…” (“Where We Are Going, We Have Been Before”). Winter is certain. Death is certain. It shows up in the hospital, appearing as “empty skin” in “Hallway Medicine”. It travels via wars, which are "not contained by borders" ("The colors of kohl"). It permeates as fog in “Adirondacks”. Yet because of death, people form bonds with strangers in the hospital or make connections across cultures or solidify relationships. 

But those bonds. We extend ourselves to others, relinquishing access to our bodies, trading vulnerability for safety. Our bodies overlap in subtle ways, as the writer shows in “The Ring”. We share space and experiences, as seen in the “Sketch from Cardiff”, though it transpires at a distance. Yet at times, we struggle to understand our own bodies, causing destruction from within, as seen in “Rainbow is a Single Color” or “Name Him”. 

Jackie Donaldson, in “The Barber Chair,” shares an idea from Rachel Carson that “there is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature.” Whether death and destruction are caused externally or internally, whether that Ohio winter is incredibly harsh or not, we will endure because of spring. Like finding community and safety in difficult times, we will seek peace.
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Thank you, readers, for taking time to engage with these contributors who have made Issue 17 rich with paradox. I also want to extend a warm welcome to our new poetry editor, Corey Miller. Additionally, we had an incredibly supportive volunteer staff who read the hundreds of submissions alongside us: we cannot thank you enough.

Katie Strine
Editor-in-Chief

Katie Strine

Katie Strine is a fiction writer and educator. Her work has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Necessary Fiction, Barely South Review and others. Once nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Katie has also been supported by The Kenyon Review. She has formerly supported GSR as a reader and has volunteered with Electric Literature and Typehouse Literary Journal. Nothing compares, however, to working within the community that Literary Cleveland and GSR support and inspire.