Our Rubble, Our Loss | 40.2

2017

I have been thinking a lot about loss lately. I have been a voracious reader since childhood; I have always filled the spaces created by loneliness and loss with words. For me, and, no doubt, for many, many others, it’s just been one of those years.

This issue of Room is filled with narratives of loss: broken hearts,  forgotten languages, missing and dying loved ones, and thefts of body, land, and rights. The title is paraphrased from the final lines of Debbie Urbanski’s poem on page 91: “Those who saw her rubble asked / what have you lost? But look at what she has: / the rubble, her loss.” As I assembled the content, which includes the winners of three contests and work submitted in response to an open call for submissions, the same questions recurred: What have you lost? What has been stolen from you? And: How do we heal? Where do we go from here? 

In the pages that follow, a recent university graduate goes to confront her wealthy landlords after they serve her an eviction notice, a sister admits to her brother that she was raped, and a boy in a residential school longs for home. In one poem, a woman sees her former lover’s face on the surfaces of grilled cheese sandwiches and crumpled Kleenex. In another, the narrator’s dying mother tells her, You have tragedy in your blood.

In her interview with Nav Nagra, Chelsea Rooney, author of the acclaimed novel Pedal, says, “It’s fiction that sets us free.” This observation has echoed in the back of my mind for weeks. I’ve been obsessing about the power and comforts of stories. I’ll end with a comic I drew last fall, on a similar theme.

First panel: a person lying on a bed, with a thought bubble that says "Lonely." Second panel: a person seated around a table with two others, looking sad while the others laugh and drink, and a thought bubble that says "still lonely." Third panel: a person dancing, surrounded by other figures, in a dark club, with a thought bubble that says "still lonely." Fourth panel: a person in a bed with another person on top of them, naked and covered by blankets, with the thought bubble "still lonely." Fifth panel: A person reading a book in a window, with a thought bubble that says "less lonely." Singed bellcurved.com

I hope you enjoy this issue.

Room vol 40.2: Our Rubble, Our Loss

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In this issue: Hangama Amiri, Carleigh Baker, Leslie Beckmann, Meghan Bell, Isa Benn, Alison Braid, Maggie Burton, Ava C. Cipri, Kayla Czaga, Ruth Daniell, Marilyn Dumont, Leanne Dunic, Tanis Franco, Taryn Hubbard, Cara Lang, Doretta Lau, Andréa Ledding, Tanya Lyons, Annick MacAskill, Kim McCullough, Amber McMillan, Nav Nagra, Sarah Nakamura, Zehra Naqvi, Annmarie O’Connell, Eva Redamonti, Amanda Rhodenizer, stephanie roberts, Chelsea Rooney, Emily Schultz, Nadia Siu Van, Jillian Tamaki, Mallory Tater, Erika Thorkelson, Debbie Urbanski, Jean Van Loon, Carly Rosalie Vandergriendt, Susan E. Wadds, Laurelyn Whitt, Irene Wilder