The cover for our final issue of the year features ethereal art by Anna Martin. The woman in the photo seems to materialize from the smoke while at the same time disappearing into it. From deep inside her chest, a hand presses against an invisible barrier, expressing a longing to be free. Like the woman, the characters in this issue seem to be coming and going, yearning and reaching.

 

“Whatever They Told You Not to Be” by Natalie Hernandez blends together Mexican folklore with a woman’s struggle to break away from her abusive relationship. Her family’s criticism swirls around her, and she goes to a bar to both lose and find herself. She hears the wail of La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, caught between the living world and the spirit world, destined to walk the earth bringing sorrow to those around her.

 

In “To Do Penance” by Kathryn Ordiway, a woman weaves through her faith like she’s weaving through traffic. In the still darkness of the night, between the hours of sleep and wakefulness, she finds herself contemplating life in an empty church. She waivers between faith and disbelief, hope and fear, stuck in the limbo of despair.

 

Back here in the real world, we’re in our own temporal limbo. We’re all leaning over the precipice of one year, reaching out to hook our fingers into the next year. This next year will be different, better, more. We’ll keep our resolutions this time. We want this new year to catch us and cradle us, to make everything okay and safe and good. Our fingers can almost touch the ridge in front of us, if only we have the courage to let go of the old.

 

See you on the other side, readers.

 

Stephanie Katz

Editor-In-Chief