Editor's Letter

by Katie Strine

One consistent thread yanked and pulled throughout these submissions: writers are worried. Their fears about the world at large are ever-present, as I’m sure they are for our readers. Hearing them, though, solidifies our freedom of speech and our ability, not just as citizens but as artists, to communicate in global ways. As such, the freedom of voice is stitched within the fabric of the stories, essays and poems presented in Issue 16.  

Urgency and despair in Daniel Brennan’s “Out on the bar’s patio, we learn that the body of another gay man was found in Brooklyn”; mourning and loss in Hugh Martin’s “Army Specialist Nicholas E. Zimmer Memorial Highway”; cynicism and violence in “A Sudden Hail of Gunfire, a Wedding and a Dance.” Unrest, however, finds stillness in other pieces. Noah Christopher’s “Men from the Commons” evokes a religious reverence, while “Plump Glass Birds,” by Amanda Bramley, explores nostalgia: both contrasting what remains with what fades. Emily Patterson’s “Moth Ghazal” soothes readers in serene, playful imagery. Escapism or activism: this issue has a patchwork of both and more in between.

Readers will also find winners of the Midwest Writers Contest, judged by the talented Amber Sparks, whose notable works include And I Do Not Forgive You and The Unfinished World. With her inscrutable eye for short yet well-crafted flash, she identified Jodi Cressman as the winner and Whitney Weisenberg as the runner-up. Look for Amber’s comments alongside their work.

Worth acknowledging, Literary Cleveland’s free writing conference held in September brought roughly 4,500 writers downtown for community, workshops and keynote speaker, Katie Kitamura. If her novel Audition’s appearance on President Obama’s reading list or her name shortlisted for the Booker Prize hasn’t influenced you to read her work yet, hopefully this will! 

Thank you to our featured Cleveland artist, Alyssa Lizzini, our hard-working and willing volunteer readers, and, of course, our readers. This publication exists through collaboration and community. Now, here’s to a thick quilt, a Midwest casserole and November snow: the ideal backdrop for reading.

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. While new to the Editor-in-Chief role, 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.