2023 Writers Literary and Art Magazine

Letter from the Editors

Dearest friends of Writers,

As the cold of Winter fades away and everything begins to awaken, we are reminded of the opportunity for new life. Spring is a time for renewal, growth, and rebirth. It is a flower blooming through melting slush and snow. It is reaching down into the roots once forgotten underground and returning to them, like a songbird singing once again from its perch outside of your bedroom window. It is hope for what is to come and healing for what has come to pass. As we enter a new season for Writers, we are given the unique opportunity to display the fruits of the heart.

Our theme, In the Garden, embodies these Spring moments and the feelings they bring about with them. It is inspired by one of the most well-known stories within the Abrahamic religions of a botanical safe haven, a place of pleasure, and the site of mankind’s original sin. The Garden, in all its terrestrial glory, is Paradise. In our imperfection, our fall from grace, we are faced with the choice to follow the temptation to consume Earth’s pleasures and subdue it, to have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens, or to confront our transgressions against Mother Earth and redefine our visions of Paradise.

We entrusted our contributors to create scenes of delight, not confined to any specific interpretation. We follow our contributors where their hearts led, whether into Eden, out of Adan, through California, or stuck in Babylon. AM Blank’s play explores the desperation and persistence of human connection, all from aboard a ship. Our Editor’s Choice pieces reflect the pillars with which we interact with love and identity. Claire Carter captures the nature in which we grow from our roots, while Soleia Yemaya Quinn’s vivid painting is a beautiful devotion to the mother figure.

We reap what we sow. This edition of Writers invites you to think about how we might cultivate our lives and harvest the crop from our familial trees. We urge you to hold tight to blissful moments and to daydream of greener grass. Most of all, we applaud and thank the community of authors and artists who share the fruits of their labors with us. This publication is always a collective, the product of many hearts and hands. With that, take a look over the garden wall, into the Spring 2023 issue of Writers Literary and Art Magazine.

With love, Mia and Valencya Senior Editors 2023-2024