Editor’s Note
BY HEIDI SEABORN
Editorial Director
With summer comes longer days and a more leisurely pace. We shed clothes and shoes, and we unravel from our scheduled lives.
When we step away, we see things differently. As our team of editors contemplated each work for this issue, we encountered shifting perspectives. We found answers to questions we didn’t know we had.
We encourage you to jump in—the water’s warm! Reflect on Dana Levin’s poem “Dirty Mirror” and Donald Platt’s “On Turning Sixty”, or rethink the construct of grammar and language with Jane Wong in her poem “Hard to Say”. Throw open a window and give Molly Anders’ “Kindness in the Face of Tyranny” a read, experience the blur of news headlines in a fresh way with Gabriel Blackwell’s “What are Children Made of?”, and let go with Sheldon Costa’s story “Prince”.
On a rainy day, read the quietly transformative poem “Rain Study” by Wayne Miller or drown in the gorgeous poetic homage to New Orleans in Clint Smith’s “Here nor There”. In a different vein, lose yourself in Kamilah Aisha Moon’s “The Color Purple Rain: An Elegy and an Ode”.
Wade into the astonishing work of our Adroit Prize winners and finalists, selected from our largest pool of high school and college student work yet. In case you missed our announcement, Judge Franny Choi awarded the 2019 Adroit Prize for Poetry to Fiona Stanton’s “The Devout Childhood of St. Elizabeth of Hungary” and selected Daniel Blokh as runner up, and judge Jamel Brinkley awarded the 2019 Adroit Prize for Prose to Angelo Hernandez-Sias’s “Gift” and selected Jason Lalljee as runner up. This issue also includes poems from finalists Yujane Chen, Annalise Lozier, Lucy Catlett, Brennan Sprague, and Grace Gilbert. Their extraordinary writing belies their youth.
We’ve got a new batch of Good Stuff for your summer consumption—namely, conversations with Keetje Kuipers and Sam Ross, and a section of stunning, thought-provoking art to boot. We’ve packed in everything your brain needs to go on an Adroit holiday, so relax, take your time to read and contemplate the work in Issue 29, and see where it leads you.
Happy Summer!
