Editor Note

Issue 27
September 2022

Editor’s Note:

Dear Readers and Writers,
As we watch (and enjoy reading) the many literary magazines that proliferate the internet we want to say thank you — to those who stop by our site to read the latest issue, and to our many (!) contributors who keep our submission queue at flood stage. We know you have a lot of choices for reading and we DO appreciate all of you.

We’re also aware that this is back to school, return to the office, things-might-be-back-to- normal time of the year again. Exciting for sure, but nerve wracking if you aren’t especially feeling like your shiniest, have it all together self. Our Fall issue is showing up just in time, to calm you down or rile you up, depending on which selections you are reading.

We’d also like to leave you with a little Maggie Smith. Her book Keep Moving, has a permanent spot on the editor desk, and well,— there’s this:

 

Accept that you are
A work in progress,
both a revision and
a draft: you are
better and more
complete than
earlier versions of
yourself, but you
also have work
to do. Be open
to change. Allow
yourself to be
revised.

Keep moving

—Maggie Smith

Feeling more like a rough draft than a polished manuscript??
Same.

Enjoy the issue!

Molly Hill
Editor

An empty space is full of potential. Believe that you are making room for something. Turn on the vacancy sign. Keep moving. (Keep Moving, Maggie Smith)

Issue 26
June 2022

Happy Summer! Our June issue lags a bit behind summer’s arrival this year, but we’re proud of all the work that we rounded up for Issue 26. We’ve never done ‘theme’ issues, relying instead on a veritable buffet of views and themes from our student writers. Our hope is always that any issue of Blue Marble Review creates a new sense of space for the reader, and that there is a story, essay, poem, or work of art in each issue that stimulates a new way of thinking, a greater sense of empathy, or perhaps just a nod of understanding.

There’s a LOT of fine work in this issue, but in particular we’d like to highlight the Cover Art from Sabahat Ali Wani. Her artist statement— poignant and powerful, is here:

The mixed media artwork titled, ‘Revisit: A Wardrobe’ is an artist’s attempt to celebrate a Kashmiri woman’s wardrobe in an authentic way. It is a celebration of our culture that often gets appropriated and capitalised upon. Yes, it is a political statement but it also tries to bring in a fairytale aspect that goes beyond the conflict by appreciating our scarfs, sleeves, clothes etc., which are long forgotten but still stand as symbols of our existence and resistance. 

 Look for more of her mixed media work in our ART section.

 We plan to continue to make space for readers and writers who use creativity as an emblem of both existence and resistance.

Enjoy the issue—

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor’s Note
Issue 25/March 2022

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going, no feeling is final.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Dear Reader’s and Writers:

We’ve never asked students to submit writing according to a particular theme, but when each issue is curated, polished and ready to go online, the writing seems to always reflect the current cultural mood. Some of the titles featured in this issue* show us that although there is still struggle, search, and lots of figuring out how to cope going on— creativity and hope are alive and well.

Not sure how we got to Issue 25 so quickly(!), but we’re still championing the idea that reading, writing, and creative work can provide both solace in a challenging world, as well as a sense of empathy and connection to others in these pseudo-quarantined-is-it-over-yet times.

Still engaged in that Sisyphean task of thinking positive, trying not to get discouraged, and figuring out the new normal? Us too. Let’s just keep going.

Molly Hill
Editor

 

(cartoon by Zachary Kanin for The New Yorker)

 

*A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, The Things We Love Most in the World, How Coin Tosses Prove God Exists: A Lab Report, Legacy Ends Here, Tormentor, Dreams About Death, Nostalgia, grief, deconstructed, Blind Spots, Bonding, in the margins, Dear Brother, The Homeless Tiger, After Lucy, The Neighborhood Infinite, Smoke Breaks.

Issue 24
December 2021

 

There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth. -Doris May Lessing

Dear Readers and Writers:

Of the 32 selections in our December issue, seven of them are fiction pieces. There’s a short flash piece about taking on a bully (Turtle Girl), a funeral with a widow who is decidedly NOT grieving (Pray), and one about some wall art that seems a little.. shifty (Portrait). Check out Seedless Soil, —a very unusual duel at high noon, two ‘smoke’ stories (Smoke Ghosts and Smoke in the Air), and The Window, a quirky/imaginative vignette we couldn’t say no to.

You’ll also find a dozen splendid poems, a handful of poignant essays, an outstanding book review (When Breath Becomes Air) and some incredible art and photography.

December 1^st was the deadline for 2021 Pushcart nominations, and though it was a challenge to select only six pieces from everything we published this year, it was such an honor to recognize these students:

 

Flotsam(poetry)- Oluwafisayo Akinfolami

Reader, I (poetry)- Zoe Reay-Ellers

Polyester (poetry)- Rena Su

Give & Take or how God Takes his revenge (poetry)- Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya-Okorie

Snow Day (fiction) -Crystal Peng

Bottle Baby (fiction)- Matt Hsu

Congrats to these writers, and to every student who fills out our submission form, attaches their writing and hits SEND. You all are the best.

Molly Hill
Editor