It is with both surprise and great satisfaction as we find
ourselves here typing this editor’s note at the epilogue of
our story as the co-editors of this Literary Magazine. In
truth, we are a group of eight with various discrete paths
which we are preparing to journey on as students and
individuals. The connecting thread for this group is that
writing is one of our strongest and preferred modes to
express ourselves. It is the reason we culminated our pieces
in this publication that you are holding here today, crammed
with our own flights of emotions and thoughts, layered and
enfolded in the questions we ask ourselves and each other
as we explore this magazine’s theme of self.
The three sections of this publication correspond to the
divergent senses of self we experience through mind, body,
and soul. First and foremost, the mind section of this
magazine entails a journey of personal reflection concerning
the past--these include personal essays, poetry and prose on
tangible events that relate to ourselves, and introspective
pieces contemplating upon our individual lives. Transitioning
into body, we find more research-oriented works, focusing on
the present world’s many issues, as well as critiquing art
forms such as films. The final section, soul, paints the
imagined future, with fictional pieces representing the theme
of recuperation.
This year, we spotlighted Cathy Park Hong, a Korean
American poet, author, and professor, as a distinguished
writer and advocate to shed light on. Named on the Time
00: The Most Influential People of 2021 list, Hong has
explored her personal struggles with identity through her
biographic writing, as well as depicting current global issues in
her more fictional works—an embodiment of the themes of
this Literary Magazine.