36.
This was the issue blindsided by coronavirus.
We’d already been planning on using a “monster/ transformation” aesthetic. That turned out to be prescient— in part because of the gothic little non-lifeform haunting the globe right now, but also because this time has warped us, changed us, both as an editorial team and as a species. We are, all of us, transforming—into what? Only the fullness of time will tell, but perhaps the work contained within this journal may give us clues to the new worlds about to emerge from the body of the old. The word “monster” comes from the Latin word monere, which means “to warn, advise, admonish.” Monsters get a bad rap. Mostly because they’re different—they don’t look like us, think like us, or live as we do. Humans are great at hating what they don’t understand, scapegoating and vilifying otherness. Unusual beings disrupt the complacency we love to keep. Monsters, and our reactions to them, tend to reveal things about humanity that cannot be rationally explained. In this way, the creator and the monster are perhaps not so very different.
This installment of The Pointed Circle aims to celebrate social equity and inclusivity by publishing works by people from myriad different countries, cultures, and identities. We seek to embrace and uplift otherness. We want to take our small stand against social erasure and demonization, against the homogenizing forces of white supremacy and nationalism and fear. The actions of our species have been at least “fifty percent terrible,” as Maggie Smith says in her viral poem (pun intended) “Good Bones,” and we’re overdue for a transformation. It’s coming whether we want it or not, and artists and writers will help show us the way.
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Editors:
Daniel Bloomfield/Niko Boskovic/Yao Cheng/Zachary Flye/Thomasina Fizdale/Rizzo Lasagna/Jai Milx/Bobby Mullan/Mylena Panelli/Rebecca Petchenik/Jasmine Pierce/Antonia Silva/Kira Smith/S.C. Taulbee/Camilo Velasco-Overson/Aaron Warnock/Ash Wilson
Advisor:
Justin Rigamonti
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in print CONTENTS:
Expectations….. Bibhu Padhi
Pressed….. Ibtisa M Abujad
Patternchaser….. Rizzo Lasagna
Spring Comes….. Meredith Adams
Mud Wasp….. Junix Seraphim
Tiny White Flowers Falling All Around You and the Sun makes you Lovelier Still….. Monet Sutch
The Buddha of Maiden Lane….. Ian Peterkin
Chutney: Apple and Avoidance….. Madeline Kelsey
Deus Ex Machina….. Rebecca Longenecker
She Wants to Take a Shower….. Cassie Premo Steele
Communion….. Junix Seraphim
Gambit (for Chris Schrimscher)….. Jason B. Crawford
The Witching Hour….. Zachary Flye
Every Angry Black Man Could Give A Fuck About Post-Racial Politically CoRrect Rhetoric. That Is The Same Lie Willie Lynch Used To Chain The Minds Of Slaves….. Henry 7. Reneau, Jr
Canyon….. Caitlin Costello
The Highway, The Wall….. Judith Combs-Reyes
Whispers Heard Within the Dry Grass….. Judith Combs- Reyes
Oceans (for Robert Terrio)….. Kendra Preston Leonard
Butter Creek Blueprints….. James Vu
Beast File no. 225….. Chad Lutz
Neon is Lighter than Air….. Meredith Adams
Letter to a Dreamer….. Stephanie Parent
Quiet Mornings….. Sophie Cardin
Scrawny Twig….. Ramon Jimenez
Tense….. Kira Smith
They Ask America….. Sherre Vernon
Dispatches from the Land of Erasure #2….. Henry 7. Reneau, Jr
Untitled….. S.C. Taulbee
Coronas and Therapy….. Jong Won
To Tamara in Rock Creek….. Tatiana Retivov
Baila Morena….. Jessica Mehta
Sevilla, And The Blood That Stayed There….. Monet Sutch
Bitter Botany….. Elizabeth Wing
Lost Gratitudes….. Shawn Anto
\the moon also rises\….. Chris Neilan
Swamp Dragon….. Ethan Slayton
First Play….. Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah
Albany….. Jai Milx
Billings, MT….. Tristan Gunvaldson
Untitled….. Guilherme Bergamini
Home Ownership….. Kira Smith
A Shrek Blocks the Gravel Road on the Way to Work….. Jong Won
And Even the Sun is Smiling Through All this Bright Loneliness….. Monet Sutch
The Mason….. Joseph Lezza
The Littlest Dipper….. Abigail Swoboda
Transubstantiation….. Bobby Mullan
Pantagruel and the One Eyed Goon….. Rebecca Petchenik
The Recruits….. Suzanne Verrall
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