In this issue’s short fiction, P.H. Low takes craft to the extreme in “The Will of the God of Music,” and Effie Sieberg’s “There’s Magic in Bread” connects lessons of the past to the problems of the present; in flash fiction, Mari Ness takes a hard-hitting look at current magical trends in “Enchanted Mirrors Are Making a Comeback. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing,” and in Aimee Ogden’s “Moments of Doubt” an absence of evidence leaves us guessing about the fate of the evidently absent; in poetry, we have “The Distance Between Us” by Rati Mehrotra and “Possession” by Tonya Liburd. Plus an interview with the author of The Changeling, The Ballad of Black Tom, and Lone Women, Victor LaValle. Enjoy!
I like for my fantastical work to feel deeply grounded in the real world before I introduce the weird or impossible elements. In The Changeling I wanted New York City to feel lived in, tangible; I wanted the marriage of the two leads, Apollo and Emma, to be believable, and I wanted the trials of being new parents to be utterly grounded. And then—SMACK—here comes the strange stuff.
I think that, for me, there’s been a huge uptick in antisemitism lately, which has made me lean into my culture and religion a bit more. I hadn’t seen a ton of Jewish speculative media prior to 2020, when I started writing this story, and I wanted to put something out there. A golem is both very Jewish, and also a thing you can directly create and act upon.
“Everyone’s making bread,” I say, trying to sound casual and not like I’m terrified, because talking about bread is easier than talking about what’s going on. My phone balances on my belly as I lie in bed. “It’s like the pandemic hit, and everyone’s collective delusion went ‘I’ll bake bread, that’ll solve it.’ I just don’t get it.”
I-96 is quiet while Libby drives east from Lansing, into the big same-y smear of suburbs north and west of Detroit. What must be thousands of abandoned cars still line the route, those whose drivers were abruptly bodily assumed into heaven—or whatever. Most of them have been pushed to the shoulder of the road by now, and in a few places an effort has clearly been made to start towing them away. Libby wonders what’s going to happen to all of them. Can you recycle a whole car?
Last night was beautiful / fog-swallowed, rain-kissed / we got drunk on the balcony / and talked of Plank’s length
I’m interested in the intersections between disability and religion—particularly the narratives constructed at both organizational and individual levels around what disability means in relation to the god(s) one worships, as well as how one might respond accordingly . . . I find it fascinating that in certain personal and corporate theologies, the god(s) might be blamed for misfortune, might be raged at, while in other belief systems, even within the same nominal religious umbrella, the adherent might be told to focus on their own self-improvement and/or positive thinking, for their virtue is being tested/they are but a worm, etc . . .
You hear the door open as if in dreaming. Back when you were a conservatory student, you chewed a third of a melatonin tablet every night—to keep yourself from snapping awake before sunup, chest tight, your head still achy with exhaustion. Now, mornings are difficult: your eyelids weighted, sliding; thick grey wool between your temples. Your body drifting in a warm, slow sea.
In this issue’s short fiction, P.H. Low takes craft to the extreme in “The Will of the God of Music,” and Effie Sieberg’s “There’s Magic in Bread” connects lessons of the past to the problems of the present; in flash fiction, Mari Ness takes a hard-hitting look at current magical trends in “Enchanted Mirrors Are Making a Comeback. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing,” and in Aimee Ogden’s “Moments of Doubt” an absence of evidence leaves us guessing about the fate of the evidently absent; in poetry, we have “The Distance Between Us” by Rati Mehrotra and “Possession” by Tonya Liburd. Plus an interview with the author of The Changeling, The Ballad of Black Tom, and Lone Women, Victor LaValle. Enjoy!
Enchanted mirrors. Once restricted to royalty—and only a few of them—these days they seem to be everywhere: in crumbling mansions, sparkling penthouse pieds-à-terre, rundown apartments, executive office buildings, and even the occasional meticulously maintained castle. For those trading in enchanted mirrors—or just looking for one—this probably seems like a good thing. But the increased abundance of enchanted mirrors does have a more sinister side.
