Director’s Note
Reading writers who have helped change the world changes you. You come to appreciate what William Carlos Williams meant when he wrote “It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” Certain seminal works alter your perception of the big picture: cause and effect, agency vs. incapacity, and history vs. ideology.
Writing from different cultures and different times inevitably denotes truths (even if couched in fictional narratives) that are outside of time and agenda. It is, then, easier to make connections between Irish immigrants who worked the coal mines in Pennsylvania, Lithuanian immigrants who worked in the meatpacking plants in Chicago, and Mexican immigrants—especially the illegal ones—who labor in sweltering kitchens and frigid fields all across our country. It’s impossible not to put human faces and real feelings alongside this suffering and start connecting the dots that define how exploitation works. We discern the uneasy lines connecting our shared histories and possible futures. And then, at last, there’s a chance for recognition, empathy, culpability.
Why bring politics into it, one might ask (and a certain political party reliably does)? Short answer, duh. Longer answer, courtesy of the ever-reliable (and prescient) George Orwell: “The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.” As someone who writes fiction and poetry but also reviews and champions art, I’m cognizant of my status as a straight white male, while also feeling the desire to showcase traditionally under-represented voices is imperative, and consistent with the mission of any critic with integrity: broaden dialogue and celebrate marginalized voices. If we’re made to see others it’s possible we’ll see ourselves. Bearing witness requires listening as much as speaking out. This is one meaningful way writers can hold others— and themselves—to account. Without engagement none of this is possible and, in 2021, it seems not only irresponsible, but immoral to look away.
Tara Campbell, as a writer and advocate for writing, is an artist whose work often deconstructs the here-and-now. Her collection, Political AF: A Rage Collection, is a timely and necessary addition to contemporary discourse, and we are honored to showcase her as this issue’s Featured Writer. Her essay “Write, Edit, Act” sets the ideal tone for the pieces that follow, and her original poem, “In Contradiction to the Commander’s Standards and Wishes,” functions as statement of purpose and rallying cry. Matthew Davis muses on the relationship between democracy and imagination, while Tom Kapsidelis explores rites of passage and the politics of gun rights. Bethanne Patrick recalls the Watergate trial and her introduction to political controversy, and Kathleen McInnis advocates for more women with roles in national security and policy. Justen Ahren poetically explores his recent experience working with refugees, and my essay goes back to the future with a proposition that understanding—and exploiting—the power of narrative is perhaps the most effective way to influence hearts and minds to bring about necessary and overdue policy.
Orwell, again: “It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows.” I hope you find the writing that follows enlightening and inspiring. We will need all the support and solidarity possible in the months and years ahead.
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