Travellers | 48.2

2025

We live in the past, present, and future, and are constantly travelling across these times in our human ways: reflecting, dreaming, manifesting. We exist in the past that birthed us: always living with those roommates from university, always the child with our parents. Simultaneously, we exist in our futures, always looking toward the next adventure, dreaming of new worlds. So, too, do we live outside of ourselves—existing in our relationships with others and the places we’ve lived, and who continue to hold us even when we leave.

Pieces like “DAHLIA” by Olivia Van Guinn and “Breeders” by Liina Koivula focus on the messiness of youth, of queer and trans friends and lovers trying to figure out who they are. These pieces are balanced with reflection from those who have travelled across time longer—who hold more memory—such as in Carol Krouse’s “A Total Immersion of Descent” and Camie Kim’s “Sad Robot.” Claire Diamant and Nara Monteiro’s interview with Books 2 Prisoners BC reminds me how—despite how unwieldy the creation of a better future is—small changes can be made in people’s lives for their wellbeing this very moment.

“pt 1: it starts at home” explores how we do not live apart from the past, from the memory of place. Multiple pieces explore our existence within relationships: of dissolving boundaries between mother and child in “Mama Letter” by Yomalis Lourdes Rosario, and the memories of people who we remain connected to despite their absence, such as in rachael moorthy’s “My Blackberry Really Was Dead.” The pieces in the issue connect with a timelessness as well—a travelling into surreal realms, a wandering into our dreams, full of tricksters and transformations.

I’m so incredibly proud of all the pieces published in this issue—the pieces we selected and the first-place contest-winners whose pieces fit so well with our theme as it transformed. I wanted to quote a line from every single piece in this letter, but I will have to let the words speak for themselves. Special thanks to my editorial team Nara Monteiro, Claire Diamant, and natasha gauthier for their time, care, and talent.

– Lena Belova