Dear Readers,
Here we arrive in October, having found in the constellation of our many corners a room of our own, a clean well-lighted place. From amidst this nü normal, we’re so glad we’ve come to this bridge together.
Ema C. opens this issue on a reflective note, looking a greyscale self in the eye (1) while Max N. draws us through two days perched between the new unseized, the uncertain memories they soon become, and the company they keep (1-2). Next up, Sky F. commemorates RBG with an illustration that does justice to her towering legacy (3). If you miss Swedish meatballs (or, more accurately, HUVUDROLL), head to Ikea with Erik B. to find all the furniture you do and don’t need (4) before exploring the play between light and material in Sophie H.’s series of texturally rich portraits (5). Put your car in drive and then reverse to collide with Aislin L. S.’s poetry and photography (6), then settle into a rocking chair (sweet tea optional) on the porch to join Dan P. contemplating cats, cows, and purpose (8). Finally, looking for the soundtrack to a nü normal? Stroll out of this issue bopping to a recommendation from Lauren M.’s latest album review of fresh tunes from Haley Blais, Vancouver, B.C.’s own nostalgia pop princess (9).
For Issue II, explore the cozy, familiar, and anything that reaches out and wraps you up or in and takes root with the next issue’s theme of Comfort―all that brings it, takes it, and evokes it. We await with an open inbox and a steaming mug of your favorite hot beverage. Stay warm, stay wide-eyed, stay well.
Warmly,
Sophie, Nerissa, Lauren, Erik, Dan, and Aislin
Art by Ema Chomsky, Sky Ford, and Ross Tidwell
Fiction by Erik Beserra and Max Nobel
Photography by Sophie Halpin and Aislin Lighter Steill
Poetry by Dan Primka and Aislin Lighter Steill
Review by Lauren Mondroski
Poetry & Fiction
Art & Photography
Released on August 25, 2020, Haley Blais’ Below the Salt is an album I wish I had during my first year of college. Coincidentally, that’s when I first started listening to Blais, a Vancouver-based singer-songwriter and vlogger whose wacky sense of humor and DIY bedroom-pop bangers resonated with me, a freshman living on her own for the very first time and trying to make sense of the world and herself. That unsure first-year is a senior now, but no less unsure, and I think that’s the point of Blais’ debut album: her label writes, “Below the Salt is a coming of age story that recognizes that there is no real ‘coming of age.’”