Letter from the Editors
As summer comes to an end and winter fast approaches, the writers and artists featured in this issue take on what it would mean if summer never came again, or if one day, you woke up and everything about the world was different. A dystopia is defined as the dark underside of a utopia, or a world that has become a nightmare. The poems and stories in our Dystopian issue, however, reflect a sweeping definition of this word: from the personal hell of depression to life as a mechanized being once all humans have been swept from the face of the Earth, from the horror of waking up to a flooded landscape to how seeing a hanged corpse can change the way you view the world.
We are very proud to publish this collection of dystopian work. The writers and poets featured in this issue push the boundaries of form and genre, space and time. We are also excited with the incredible diversity of writers our magazine attracts. We are publishing writers who represent a range of ethnicity, gender, age and country of origin. We believe that this demonstrates the universality of writing as an art form and of the theme of this issue. Everyone can imagine a place devoid of love, warmth, shelter or security; and what is thrilling about these dark imaginings is how it illuminates our own lives, our own world.
We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue. We certainly enjoyed reading each of these dark, troubling, or enthralling submissions. Perhaps they will inspire you to create a dystopian world of your own, or to work towards utopia in the world around you.
Happy reading!
Blair Hurley & Olivia Tandon