About Shantih
Welcome to issue 2.1 of Shantih Journal. We are excited
to debut what we’ve been working so very hard on behind
the scenes: our new format. Shantih’s new look is
designed to more boldly showcase the work of our writers
and artists. Much thanks and all credit to our Design
Editor, Freddy Eschrich whose expertise made this giant
step forward possible.
Of note in Issue 2.1, the words of Peter LaBerge from his
new chapbook, Makeshift Cathedral. Peter, the Editor in
Chief of Adroit Journal, is generous and dynamic presence
in the writing community and a rising star in American
poetry. We are thrilled to give him the stage and help to
share his thoughts and his work further.
Our featured artist for this issue is Allen Forrest.
Allen’s landscape and cityscape paintings depict
environments of calm and curious stillness. Each scene is
strangely unoccupied, as if abandoned, or simply lying
in wait. A unique quality which lends itself to the
poetry that surrounds it. By contrast, his jazz & blues
portraits are strong, vibrant, and human. Memorials and
milemarkers, tracing a history between each silent scene.
Allen’s work is expressive, tactile, and insightful.
Allen is joined by Matthew Saindon, whose photographic
manipulations echo the pensive quietude explored
throughout the issue. The images evoke a fading memory
and the melancholy of forgetting.
We are also thrilled to be joined by our cadre of
amazing writers. We thank them for entrusting us with
their work. And about that work—we have said our mission
statement is to explore aspects and boundaries of peace.
Since our last edition, the climate has shifted rather
dramatically, and the works in this issue reflect those
further edges, the less certain faces of what peace
means. Sometimes an idea is defined by its negative
space, and so it can be with peace. Shantih is exploring
this shuddering, uncertain time to see what means at
extremis. This issue, our largest to date, searches for
peace in unexpected places. We thank you for taking that
journey with us.