Letter from the EditorDear Readers,
Issue 32 is born and ready to be explored on our website and in print, and we—Associate Editors Bella Bisicchia, Adam Buckley, Erica Lee, and Samantha Szumloz—are ecstatic to see it in the flesh. It’s a phenomenal edition, rich with themes of decay, recollection, and connection in all its forms. It’s a gorgeous body of work from wise writers and artists that we are proud to represent. We chose the three taglines: life’s eccentricities, connection and loss, and returning to dust. We found many pieces including the awareness of mortality and the self, such as in pieces like “Accidents” by Mickie Kennedy and “The Year of the Dragon” by Jin Jung. Many of these creative works are about complex relationships, like “The Year You Came Back” by Audra Burwell and Scott Pomfret’s “Avalanche Control: A Love Story,” which draw you into fraught, tragic bonds that leave their mark, inside and out. |
|
As editors, we agree that this issue’s juxtaposition of vibrancy in the art and its messages on heartbreak in the prose and poetry is what stuck with us:
|
Bella says there truly aren’t enough words for the cover of this issue. Simply: wow. Every piece of artwork in this issue is absolutely breathtaking and hauntingly beautiful from start to finish. The visual art speaks in a language all its own, weaving together the poetry and prose of Issue 32.
|
|
What Adam loves most about Issue 32 is its aesthetic. The vibe, if you will. That cover is just electric, and the contents within are bursting with just as much life. Even when the works are discussing pain, heartbreak, despair, or fear, they’re doing so colorfully, because in spite of those things, we are so desperately, powerfully alive.
|
|
Issue 32 stirs up a deep nostalgia in Erica with the artwork's fun colors and the eccentricities of the pieces. The poem “Yard Sale” by Michael C. Smith stands out for its vivid imagery of the mundane. The description and attention to detail of the small things that one misses in the whirlwind of everyday life.
|
|
The piece that sticks with Samantha Szumloz the most is Scott Pomfret’s “Avalanche Control: A Love Story” due to the covert nature of its protagonist as well as its larger-than-life characterizations of Minnesota. The fiction speaks volumes about our existence, how we love, and the secrets we take to our grave.
|
As we launch this issue into the world, the Glassworks team is excited to travel to Baltimore for the AWP Conference to introduce Issue 32 to our literary community and to celebrate our 15th anniversary as a publication. If you’ll be there, please stop by booth 1063 to say hello!
On behalf of all four of us, we would like to thank our Editor-in-Chief, Katie Budris, Managing Editor, Cate Romano, and everyone who helped put this issue together. And thank you to our contributors for making Issue 32 a reality!
May your spring bring you as much color as this issue has brought us.
Bella Bisicchia, Adam Buckley, Erica Lee, & Samantha Szumloz
Associate Editors
On behalf of all four of us, we would like to thank our Editor-in-Chief, Katie Budris, Managing Editor, Cate Romano, and everyone who helped put this issue together. And thank you to our contributors for making Issue 32 a reality!
May your spring bring you as much color as this issue has brought us.
Bella Bisicchia, Adam Buckley, Erica Lee, & Samantha Szumloz
Associate Editors
