Letter from the Managing Editor

Welcome to Bellingham Review’s Issue 83, our twelfth online issue! Inside, you’ll find incredible work from writers and translators, along with a gorgeous photo by David Scherrer, Grave, which serves as our cover.

As I worked on this issue, I did so remotely, from my Appalachian home of West Virginia while my peers and my advisor worked in the Pacific Northwest. True, the covid-19 pandemic has made this modality more or less the new normal. True, we are still feeling the reverberations from its ricochet. What I find so extraordinary, amongst all of the tragedy and loss that we’ve no doubt suffered from recently, is our humanitarian ability, provocation, and instinct to connect, to remain connected. We’ve seen this in creative, small ways: from Zooming to work or school, maintaining relationships via FaceTime, or through social media platforms. And, close to my heart, we seek out and remain connected through communication. Words. Literature. We persevere to keep ourselves and our communities intact, no matter how far away they may seem. 

A special feature of this online issue is our Cuban Translation Folio, “Far Away Like Cuba,” which features work and translation from a multitude of talented writers, and which, I think, highlights this silver lining. It shows the ways in which words have the ability and power to strengthen or forge connection among us all. Here, we have work from Cuba, translated by writers from all different walks of life and locations, formatted for your viewing (yes, you! Wherever you are) by an Appalachian. How bizarre but, I think, more importantly, how beautiful.

It is my hope that the words you’ll find in this issue will give you some beauty, will bolster any connections with us, with one another, maybe, even, begin new ones.

With love,

B. Woods