Consequence: Volume 15.1

Dear Readers,

Our mission, succinctly put, is to create awareness around the consequences of war and geopolitical violence. We want people to be conscious of and appreciate the overpowering breadth and variation of these effects.

The challenge for us, then, is finding strong literature and art that's representative of this range and nuance. How do we meet this challenge? Well, we work at it. We put in overtime when it comes to reviewing the slush pile, soliciting authors, and reaching out to international literary communities. And though we know there are plenty of consequences we've yet to spotlight, we are very much encouraged by our ongoing efforts.

In this volume, for example, there are eighteen different countries represented, all of which portray any number of place-specific repercussions. In the art feature, the photos of Alfred Yaghobzadeh relay the varied physical and cultural effects on Afghanistan and its people after decades of war and violence. Our Translations Editor, who helmed the feature, writes: Soldiers groom themselves to be ready for meeting their makers, boys-who are forced to become men overnight-find ways to play, and women still seek joy behind the curtains of gender segregation. Likewise, in Sandra Kolankiewicz's poem, "Dear Famous Poet," we witness two extraordinary personal experiences: one of a wounded vet as he's teaching a class while being belittled by a well-known poet and the other from the young narrator, who's angered by how the poet is treating their beloved teacher.

In this volume there are fifty-six unique pieces and each is an example of just how far-reaching and singular the consequences of war and geopolitical violence can be.

Thank you for helping create more awareness through reading these works.

Sincerely,

The Editors