PUBLISHER'S NOTE

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Dear Weird Lit Readers,

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Releasing each issue of Weird Lit Mag on equinoxes and solstices is an intentional choice we made when we started this project. This has become an important ritual in our observance of the change in seasons. And we’re in good company here in the Pacific Northwest. From parades of nude cyclists to witchy metal festivals, weirdos across the land converge to celebrate these cosmic happenings. 

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There’s an inescapable, transformative quality to these seasonal changes. For us weird lit nerds, this transformation is often co-facilitated by storytelling. We use fiction to parse out meaning and to navigate this human condition. And when fiction is free to be weird, so are we. In the weird exist limitless dimensions of growth and discovery. 

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These are the dimensions I invite you to explore through the stories and art we’ve curated for this summer issue. You may notice an emerging trend in these selections. A subtle turn toward hope. A conscious decision to wrangle despair barehanded while cackling at the moon. A loving embrace of nonsense, sincerity, and the utter weirdness of being human.  

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Speaking of weirdness, have you seen all the rabbits running around? They’ve overtaken the park and the trails and the neighborhood. They’re in the gardens eating all the kale and they’re crossing the road and interrupting games of street hockey and did that one just sneer at me? I don’t remember rabbits being purple. Look, now they’re carrying signs protesting all manner of human activities, but no one’s been listening except for maybe the artists, and wow, how wondrous are these creatures that hop across our path each day, their faces expressing that familiar bewilderment of the living. If only we could pause to scoop them up and revere their beauty, their wisdom, their–Damnit, that one bites.

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I have hopes for this summer: to grow, even when it’s painful; to love, even when it’s complicated; to dream, even when nightmares abound. I would also be delighted to encounter a little dog dancing a jig. What a sight!

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As we mark the summer solstice with our fifth issue, let’s remember: 

Weird is good. Where there’s weird, there’s a way. 

 

Yours in seasonal mutation,

 

September Herrin

Publisher & Editor in Chief

Weird Lit Magazine