Issue 49: Mattering

What matters in this world? We are all always asking this question whether we realize it or not, and it's a brave act to honestly and intentionally hold this question. The words and images gathered in this issue do just that—giving space for the writer, artist, and reader to ponder our mortality and our meaning in this life together. 

You'll find Paula Harris' winning poem from our 2018 Poetry Prize, which begins "you will dig me from the earth with your bare hands, in order to resurrect me" and the runner-up poem by Clemonce Heard, titled “Our Hands are Bowls of Dust.” With stunning fiction, nonfiction, art, and more lovely poems, we explore how we are all formed by the earth and eventually and sacredly return to it. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

POETRY
you will dig me from the earth with your bare hands, in order to resurrect me, Paula Harris
Our Hands Are Bowls of Dust, Clemonce Heard 
In This Village, Renia White 
Dream Joy, Jessica Hincapie 
Drawing the Wire Horse, Kendra Langdon Juskus 
Winterberries II, Kevin McLellan 
Trying to Get My Body Back, Jen Stewart Fueston
In early spring before leaves have taken place, Lary Kleeman 
Marsyas Returning, Shangyang Fang  
Type Two, Benjamin Gucciardi 
City of Refuge, Matthew Landrum 
After Your Illness, I Think of the Perseids, Emily Ransdell 
The Queen’s English, Seema Yasmin  
Homonyms, Jihyun Yun 
Diane, Just a Little Longer, Rainie Oet

VISUAL ART
The art of Kris Vervaeke 
The art of Vanessa Hall-Patch 
The art of Sarah Jane 
The art of Aaron McPeake 

NONFICTION
Terrible Knives and Things That Float, Anne Visser Ney 

FICTION
The Gathering, David Desjardins  
The Piano Student, Kira Archibald 

Cover art by Vanessa Hall-Patch.