It is truly an honor to introduce the newest issue of Tupelo Quarterly. In addition to featuring new work by such literary luminaries as Nick Flynn, Ada Limon, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Martha Ronk, Stephanie Strickland, and Elizabeth Robinson, we are thrilled to highlight several exciting new voices in the literary arts. Preeti Kaur Rajpal, for instance, shows us that the smallest stylistic choices in a poem can be politically charged, offering us language that is as subversive in its logic as it is disruptive in its syntax. Jennifer S. Cheng, whose star is also rising, places the prose poem form in dialogue with myth, magic, and silence.
This issue is clearly our boldest and richest yet, representing a full range of aesthetic approaches, formal predilections, and writerly obsessions. In many ways, this diversity arises from our Associate and Senior Editors’ glorious array of creative projects, their vastly divergent approaches to the work of literary criticism, and the infinitely varied questions they ask of poems, stories, essays, and artworks. It’s a pleasure to showcase this range of perspectives in our offerings for Editorial Features, a section which includes interviews and conversations, lyric essays, retrospectives and more, highlighting the subtle influences that shape the magazine and its offerings. Similarly, our Editors’ Selections in Poetry, Prose, and Visual Art offer a glimpse into the work that has been important to our editors’ development as curators and creative practitioners.
Beginning on October 15th, we will be reading submissions for the Poetry Open, to be judged by Denise Duhamel, and the Prose Open, to be judged by Nick Flynn. As always, we look forward to reading your work. In the meantime, we hope you will explore TQ13’s vast and luminous offerings. Happy autumn, and enjoy!