Editor ’ s Note
When Eleanor and I were first discussing the SotA Literary Magazine and what it might entail , how it might look , the pro-Palestine encampment was Abercromby Square . They renamed it Alareer Square , after the prominent Palestinian writer who was killed in an air strike by the IDF .
The magazine was always going to feature the physical space of the School of the Arts , and inevitably , the neighbouring square which it overlooks and what was happening there , needed to be acknowledged . We decided along with our illustrator , Yiran Yang , that the cover needed to reflect how the space has been used , not only as a place where people relax , socialise and celebrate , but also as a place of protest . This is a space which many students interact with daily , even if it is only in passing , a sight in their periphery as they run to a lecture .
Throughout the magazine , Yang ’ s illustrations perfectly capture features within the School of the Arts building . Historically , the building has ties to the American Civil War and specifically to the Confederacy and yet in this building , students from a range of disciplines engage with the arts in progressive and diverse ways . This was the space the magazine grew from , a place for students to write about whatever they want , and that is how we arrived on the name Tangents – to symbolise the different , tangential directions people can go when given free reign of their thoughts and writing .
Eleanor and I were delighted with the quality and variety of submissions to the magazine . Work from Anna King and Paddy Brennan examines politics from different perspectives ; Anna explores the reverberations of Liverpool ’ s football-related tragedies , and Paddy , the rise and evolution of the far right over generations . Familial , romantic , and personal relationships are a central subject in many stories such as Luke Blundell ’ s , which pulls together the photographic threads of a marriage ; and Eleanor ’ s a mother whose memories are scarred with blank spaces . There is darkness in many of the stories , such as in Richie Snowden-Leak ’ s and Loïs Bolton ’ s , but also , many of them contain the connections found within these gaps . Overall , the writing of Tangents is wonderfully crafted , oddly interconnected , and often feels deeply personal .
Working on this magazine alongside Eleanor made everything more enjoyable and most importantly , feasible ; it would not exist without all their hard work . Ellen Pigott , Luke Blundell , and Ella Millar were also imperative in shaping the magazine , and I must give a special thanks to Yiran Yang for her stunningly detailed illustrations which tied everything together . I want to thank all the contributors and everyone who submitted to the magazine . I ’ m grateful to Saul Leslie and Bernadette McBride for helping to start up our monthly creative writing workshop , from which much of this wonderful work has originated from . And finally , I want to thank
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