This note is at the end of the issue for a reason – our words don’t matter as much as everyone else’s here. But for those who came this far, the roots theme emerged organically, as roots do, from the work that was submitted. There’s all kinds of love and belonging in this issue; past love, familial love, almost love, missed connections love, current love, never love and hate love. Aside from that there’s just enough feathers for a small flock.

In this issue, two pieces made me laugh out loud, others made me smile, a few made me gasp. There a little haunting, a spectacular crossroads and a raw poem that reminded me of being young and lying awake all night listening to music with all the feels. Because we love writers at Tiac as a bonus treat there are five author interviews providing a little more insight into their work. 

These stories and poems range in style, the authors vary from experienced to brand new and cover several time zones. Everything may not be to the reader’s taste but that’s the beauty of places like record and book stores, forest floors and wild gardens. Everything helps everything be, everything helps everything else grow, you don’t have to love it all but you’ll find something that cradles your heart like a nest. Maybe a sharp nest.

The images accompanying some work in this issue (distinct from submitted art, displayed on its own to give it full due) should not detract from the words. The images are meant to be a little hazy, a little dreamy, a little blurry, a little abstract at times to bust beyond the borders of the natural to find something new, or give the feeling of letting loose with a camera and no one watching. Not to capture moments, not to fossilize the wild, but let them pass into something new. 

E. e.