A fox ensnared, a pet traded away, a frog let in the house: here, in Flight 25n1, our human and non-human animal ancestors speak clearly through us—sometimes to us in dreams from the other side. The work in this Flight interrogates with candor what it means for us to inherit anything at all, whether that which is handed down may be a father, a land, or a decision to be made.
Visit a world that can hear us but does not pass judgment. Ponder on what we do with the dying and how touch alone can help us live. Because how else can we bear it? This Flight concerns itself with one of humanity’s most useful sensibilities: curiosity. The writing and art within are animated by an insatiable need to keep questioning and wondering about the ways we interface with the natural world—a world that includes us and relies on our acknowledgement and care.
A doorframe hot with possibility, the poems and fiction in this Flight hold characters who long to differentiate themselves from their circumstances, while knowing that one can never escape one’s own history. This complex contradiction is not one which can be reconciled; it is, instead, something we must learn to live with.
Our reviews and interviews reckon with a similar tension; we are often trapped in the roles we’ve been handed, but in examining our featured books and authors, we can celebrate the ways in which literature allows the borders of our existences to be stretched. They reveal a world teeming with possibilities: however grave, however joyful.
Enter this Flight ready to explore the ways that our contributing authors and artists invite you into their own acts of survival. Join them in their brave and insightful discoveries. We hope these words open something within you, that they kindle the shared curiosities present here.
