Resurgence, Restoration, and Renewal | Spring 2024 Issue

In our call for this issue, we encouraged people to interpret the theme broadly—however “resurgence,” “restoration,” or “renewal” might speak to them. While the wide range of submissions we received excited and challenged us, we found ourselves drawn again and again to pieces that grapple with the shadows, the difficulties those terms so often obscure. Restoration isn’t always possible or even desirable. Glints of resurgence can be hard to find. Change is relentlessness, and loss is everywhere we look. And yet, like fiddleheads emerging in early spring, unsure of what they’ll find above ground, the authors and artists included in this issue take the risk of pushing into the light.

Each in their own way, these pieces mark the thrill of life’s insistent ongoingness amidst grief, destruction, and the everyday violences of our modern lives. In these pages, you’ll find the urgent magic of honeybees and mountains, of ocean depths we cannot fathom and ancient oceans long forgotten, of the creatures and technologies of our shared futures. The four poets published in our Youth Voices section inspire us to attend to the spiritual dimensions of resurgence— a love letter to Ramadan, meditations on the power of whispered midnight prayer, the simple act of listening to how the seasons shape our lives. We are honored to include these poems from Write Out students here in Syracuse, NY.

This is a time for creating and rediscovering paths toward care and deep accountability. This is a time of unfurling into whatever comes next. Thank you for being here.