Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
Waving Goodbye
My first issue of the Bellingham Review came out in 2016. So I actually started in 2015, reading manuscripts, curating, soliciting, page proofing—the myriad of things that make up an editor’s life (pro tip: it sometimes involves doughnuts). My first international folio consisted of writing from Hong Kong, much of it dissident, curated with my friend and stellar writer, Xu Xi. We have only one copy left of that issue. It has proven too prophetic.
Working on the Review was a dream come true. But I have to reiterate: it was 2016. I could never have imagined these intervening years. I don’t need to tell you. You’ve been here too.
Literature may not fix our problems, but it fixes us to one another. It allows us to see that the view from another’s space in this world is both akin to ours and radically different. In this issue, we see another country’s struggle with covid in Fahra Mukri’s short story “Breathless.” An intimate look at the same struggle from writers Denise Duhamel and Julie Marie Wade in their collaboration “Critical Conversations.” Lissa Batista’s hybrid work “How to Love Yourself (A Lyrical Pechakucha)” probes body image and sexual violence.
I used to tell writers I worked with that if you’re writing about something, you have in some sense survived it; every word, no matter how painful, is a survival story. I’m not sure I would say this now. But I do believe that each word is an invitation to a longed-for dialogue, on both ends. As someone who often writes disability/neurodiversity, I know I want to give readers a glimpse of my space in the world. Readers can also serve as a gentle wave acknowledging your right to have that space.
This is my last issue as editor of the Bellingham Review. I’m moving along to focus on my own writing, including a book that’s now almost a year overdue to the publisher (insert very sad face here). Another book is starting to announce itself in my head and I’m thinking of a longtime dream, starting a press.
I’m thrilled to be passing along the editorship to Jane Wong, poet and nonfiction writer whose most recent book, How to Not Be Afraid of Everything, has garnered love from the New York Times, NPR, Shondaland, and literally every human I know who has read it. She is also a nonfiction writer with a book, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, coming out in 2023. And an interdisciplinary artist. Jane has a brilliant eye, lots of great ideas, and the proper regard for the intersections of writing and food.
I want to thank my writers, each of whom has given me a perch I didn’t know I needed. A huge thanks to Bethany Woods and Caity Scott, my managing editor and assistant managing editor for this year. Both have been key parts of navigating another year of unprecedented challenges. And thank you, out there, who are reading this. If you want to keep up the dialogue—and I’m a great believer in all forms of dialogue–you can find me at susantonetta.com.
SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA is Editor-in-Chief of Bellingham Review.