THE POINTED CIRCLE: ISSUE 36
Content
- Expectations….. Bibhu Padhi
- Pressed….. Ibtisa M Abujad
- Patternchaser….. Rizzo Lasagna
- Spring Comes….. Meredith Adams
- Mud Wasp….. Junix Seraphim
- Tiny White Flowers Falling All Around You and the Sun makes you Lovelier Still….. Monet Sutch
- The Buddha of Maiden Lane….. Ian Peterkin
- Chutney: Apple and Avoidance….. Madeline Kelsey
- Deus Ex Machina….. Rebecca Longenecker
- She Wants to Take a Shower….. Cassie Premo Steele
- Communion….. Junix Seraphim
- Gambit (for Chris Schrimscher)….. Jason B. Crawford
- The Witching Hour….. Zachary Flye
- Every Angry Black Man Could Give A Fuck About Post-Racial Politically CoRrect Rhetoric. That Is The Same Lie Willie Lynch Used To Chain The Minds Of Slaves….. Henry 7. Reneau, Jr
- Canyon….. Caitlin Costello
- The Highway, The Wall….. Judith Combs-Reyes
- Whispers Heard Within the Dry Grass….. Judith Combs- Reyes
- Oceans (for Robert Terrio)….. Kendra Preston Leonard
- Butter Creek Blueprints….. James Vu
- Beast File no. 225….. Chad Lutz
- Neon is Lighter than Air….. Meredith Adams
- Letter to a Dreamer….. Stephanie Parent
- Quiet Mornings….. Sophie Cardin
- Scrawny Twig….. Ramon Jimenez
- Tense….. Kira Smith
- They Ask America….. Sherre Vernon
- Dispatches from the Land of Erasure #2….. Henry 7. Reneau, Jr
- Untitled….. S.C. Taulbee
- Coronas and Therapy….. Jong Won
- To Tamara in Rock Creek….. Tatiana Retivov
- Baila Morena….. Jessica Mehta
- Sevilla, And The Blood That Stayed There….. Monet Sutch
- Bitter Botany….. Elizabeth Wing
- Lost Gratitudes….. Shawn Anto
- \the moon also rises\….. Chris Neilan
- Swamp Dragon….. Ethan Slayton
- First Play….. Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah
- Albany….. Jai Milx
- Billings, MT….. Tristan Gunvaldson
- Untitled….. Guilherme Bergamini
- Home Ownership….. Kira Smith
- A Shrek Blocks the Gravel Road on the Way to Work….. Jong Won
- And Even the Sun is Smiling Through All this Bright Loneliness….. Monet Sutch
- The Mason….. Joseph Lezza
- The Littlest Dipper….. Abigail Swoboda
- Transubstantiation….. Bobby Mullan
- Pantagruel and the One Eyed Goon….. Rebecca Petchenik
- The Recruits….. Suzanne Verrall
Letter from the Editors
This was the issue blindsided by coronavirus.
We’d already been planning on using a “monster/ transformation” aesthetic. That turned out to be prescient— in part because of the gothic little non-lifeform haunting the globe right now, but also because this time has warped us, changed us, both as an editorial team and as a species. We are, all of us, transforming—into what? Only the fullness of time will tell, but perhaps the work contained within this journal may give us clues to the new worlds about to emerge from the body of the old. The word “monster” comes from the Latin word monere, which means “to warn, advise, admonish.” Monsters get a bad rap. Mostly because they’re different—they don’t look like us, think like us, or live as we do. Humans are great at hating what they don’t understand, scapegoating and vilifying otherness. Unusual beings disrupt the complacency we love to keep. Monsters, and our reactions to them, tend to reveal things about humanity that cannot be rationally explained. In this way, the creator and the monster are perhaps not so very different.
This installment of The Pointed Circle aims to celebrate social equity and inclusivity by publishing works by people from myriad different countries, cultures, and identities. We seek to embrace and uplift otherness. We want to take our small stand against social erasure and demonization, against the homogenizing forces of white supremacy and nationalism and fear. The actions of our species have been at least “fifty percent terrible,” as Maggie Smith says in her viral poem (pun intended) “Good Bones,” and we’re overdue for a transformation. It’s coming whether we want it or not, and artists and writers will help show us the way.
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