ISSUE SIX: Contents & A Note
featuring: LEXI KENT-MONNING, MIKE NAGEL, GAURAA SHEKHAR, and SEAN ENNIS with original paintings by JOAN LEMAY
MIKE NAGEL
Teeth
LEXI KENT-MONNING
Secret Language +
Maps +
Dental Insurance
GAURAA SHEKHAR
Paradise
Sean Ennis
Jeweler’s Row
A Note:
Times are bad, and everyone I know is stretched way past thin—buncha wispy smudges out here! But still, new writing inside.
LEXI KENT-MONNING opens the issue with three tiny, mighty poems. If you’re into Lexi’s work here, seek out her other shorties at Neutral Spaces. That’s where I first found her writing. Very good.
MIKE NAGEL calling his piece an essay is questionable, and I like it. He told me he’s worried it’s “too playful to be literary but not playful enough to be comedy.” Uh, yes dude. There will be one or two more of these in future issues, too.
I wasn’t looking for connective tissue when picking pieces for the issue, but Lexi & Mike are both coincidentally tooth-related.
My own teeth are actually ok. Ten years ago I’d go bonkers in the dentist’s chair. I got kicked out of one place for tweaking and cussing, refused service by another dentist who’d heard word about me in advance and told me to seek therapy.
I’ve got it under control, now, after meeting a super-soft talking guy who let me hold and control the suction tool on my own when he did the backlogged list of work in there. I’ve had good check-ups at my regular cleanings since, and when my dentist comes over after the hygienist is done cleaning, he looks over the x-rays and reliably whispers, “Remember when you were so scared to be here?”
GAURAA SHEKHAR sent a story which made me think about my own mom, who is gone, and so I can’t address her various vanishings over the years. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear, but there goes SEAN ENNIS with another mother in his piece, this one hiding something in her pocket.
There are too many lit mags, aren’t there? I honestly didn’t know. When I got back to bobbing around in the pool, I couldn’t believe how crowded it was, all the little waves and splashes! It’s both extremely cool and also daunting, equally impressive and disgusting! Just kidding, kinda.
But at this moment, no other magazine has JOAN LEMAY as their artist in residence, so it’s very lucky that you’ve landed here. Joan’s an old friend from my Seattle days whom I’ve lost and luckily found a few times over the course of two decades. I love her paintings—the ones here in the magazine and the ones I’ve hung on the walls at home.
I will consider it a success if you fully read one (1) of the four (4) writers in here and look closely at Joan’s paintings for at least eight (8) seconds each. I personally count an issue of a big-brain national magazine “read” when I do one of the longform pieces, check out a single poem, and skim the quick takes and comics. You won’t be held to a higher standard around here.
As I get this issue ready to post online, I’m imagining you holding it in your hands, reading it in print. Request a free print copy here.
A thousand cross-country high fives to Marianna Fierro. She did the individual art for each piece in the comeback issue last Spring, but also hung around very hard production-managing and art-directing the print version, too.
Issue Five is out of print on paper. If you got one, you actually got two, and if you haven’t shared that extra copy with someone you like, please do!
Marianna’s at the helm again for Issue Six. Newsprint this time. Get yours!
I need to thank the first readers of submissions: Vic Nogay, Ray Voith, Allie Zenwirth, and Andrei Șișman. Interesting likes, dislikes, and indifferences among this varied crew. Their feedback has been great for me and the magazine. This issue is made of pieces selected before they started reading, but you’ll see their influence in coming issues.
Until then, sometime in ’22, when I hope we’re more relaxed and moderately happy.
Love from me,
Adam
Nashville, September 2021
ISSUE SIX’S
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE:
JOAN LEMAY
Joan is a painter focusing on making work that celebrates who and what soothes us and brings us joy. Portraiture of dear friends, beloved pop culture personalities and public role models, fellow artists, and heavily saturated depictions of creature comforts. Visit her website at joanlemay.com, and take a peek into Joan’s studio (and brain!) over at 20x200.
