Letters from the Editors
from "وطن Vatan," Parissa Rad
Dear Readers, Thank you so much for being here to read this new issue of Bellingham Review. This has required so much hard work and dedication from the team, but it’s also been a blast to help put together this incredible issue full of top-tier stories, essays, art, and poems. As a fiction writer myself, this edition of BR features fiction that will make you laugh and smile in delight while also making you really think and feel for the characters and their situations. “I Worked for a Witch” by Rose Maria Woodson is an incredible mix of comedy and discussions contemporary social issues within the context of a fairy tale setting fused with our modern world. The piece had me laughing out loud while also thinking about my own struggles in my previous jobs as a gay person of color. My degree in German Studies was also miraculously glowing as I read the story. Matthew Torralba Andrews’ command of language is both breathtaking and heartbreaking within each of his sentences in the emotional pieces, “Manila, Arizona” and “Smoke.” When I first read “Marjorie and Freddie Fake Their Own Deaths” by Darlene Eliot I was in awe. It’s a charming and clever one sentence story that made me want dessert while creating such a nostalgic atmosphere in my mind and heart. I have nothing but praise for the powerful stories in this issue. It’s been such an honor to work with Jane Wong and Ally Wehrle, but I also want to recognize all the hard work and effort put in by the rest of the BR staff along with the writers and artists that have contributed to our latest issue. My gratitude also goes out to you, dear reader, for being here. This would not be possible without you as well. Thank you all for being so awesome! Alex Phengsavath Managing Editor * * * Dear Readers, What a joy it has been to help create the 87th issue of Bellingham Review! I feel incredibly honored to be writing this letter, introducing you to the stories, essays, poems, and writings that defy genre within this issue. There are so many lines from our authors that have dwelled with me since reading—including Eli V. Rahm’s “dysphoria is a trace fossil” from “Anti-Extinction” and the ending line of Remi Recchia’s “Against Burial” which declares “I want to be anything with a stinger & a surplus of time. To give me a different needle.” Recchia moves through grief and addiction with such tender, stinging lyricism. And there are two erasure poems in this issue (“The Boy Scout Oath" by Jennessa Hester and “For Queen and Country” by Joel Harris) which each use erasure in distinct ways, but both in doing so open up the text, invite in previously obscured stories and moments of resilience. The poems, stories, and essays in this issue of BR are ones that will stick with you and will insist you re-read them again to follow their twisting logics, their gut-wrenching reckonings with home, family and belonging. With gratitude to the writers, for sharing their words and stories, the amazing team of editors and readers that helped put this issue together, and to everyone reading BR—thank you deeply for spending time with us. Ally Wehrle Assistant Managing Editor * * * Dearest Readers, We are about a week away from Lunar New Year, a time when my family gathers together for a meal, leaving nourishment also for our ancestors. At the end of the meal, there are slices of oranges passed around the table, a moment of citrus brightness in the dark of winter. I’m thinking a lot about the meaning behind cover artist Parissa Rad’s "وطن Vatan,” which translates to homeland. Rad writes about how her art is inspired by nostalgic memories of growing up Iranian, of creating ties between the past and present. I cannot write this letter without thinking about the genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza right now, without thinking about the power of homelands and the immensity of grief flooding across multiple generations. Home is where my heart is and this issue of Bellingham Review is full of the visceral storytelling we come to associate with our home(s). In Ali Asadollahi’s translation of Gholamrez Borusan’s poetry, he writes of longing: “I love you / like the last pack of cigarettes in exile.” Love -- in its varied ways -- fills these pages of BR, from Karen Zheng’s “fucking bodies” to Matthew Torralba Andrews’s “Manila, Arizona” to Allison Vrbova’s “She Would Leave Her Heart.” Issue 87 also celebrates our incredible 2023 Literary Award Winners: Paige Lewis's poem “The King Game," Katie Quach's story "Wanting for Nothing," and Alexandra Dane’s essay “The Language of Flowers.” Stay a while to listen to evocative audio as well, such as Josh Nicolaisen reading “Cider Season” and Herie Sun reading “family is all you have in the end.” The BR editors and staff have worked so hard to make this issue shine, glowing from the brilliance of its mycelial connections. There's so much heart and humor and lyrical experimentation to explore here! From my BR family to you, I am sending you much care and an abundance of oranges. May each peel wrap around your heart. Jane Wong Editor-in-Chief
January 2024