There’s a longing for fall that has crept into recent conversations as we anticipate the end of a summer that’s brought record-high temperatures to many places. The few early mornings that have brought a note of cooler weather have seemed to serve as a touchpoint for many of us, as a reminder that it is the nature of things to change, and that summer’s sun will soon give way to fall and winter. 

In the poem that opens our fall issue, the speaker of William Welch’s “Earth Science” reflects on the beauty of imperfection and change in the rocks and fossils he studies, on the sense he has of the changes that have taken place in himself, and on the fear and also magic implicit in those changes: “I couldn’t explain. Maybe I didn’t want to / admit what was happening.” But the poem itself serves to explain and admit these changes, especially in the sense of ‘admit’ both as acknowledging and also as allowing in. The pieces in this issue explore this theme—many through images of birds and music—acknowledging and investigating the changes that come as the seasons of life move toward death and, perhaps, toward eventual regeneration. From the heron we see “shimmering” in Ahrend Torrey’s “Big Branch Marsh” to the one we find silently “floundering in the ditch” in D. E. Green’s “Blue Heron Blues” to the “seagull-shaped scar” on the face of Townes Van Zandt and the “old footprints” that fly away in David A. Goodrum’s “Lightheaded Near Yaquina Head,” we move through this fall toward winter, until Thao Votang’s “Nocturne” leaves us with only the memory of song: “we’re breathless and then three keys slow. Then two. Then one. Then none.”

Issue Thirty includes poetry and prose by Stephen Barile, Betty Benson, Barbara Daniels, Howie Good, David A. Goodrum, D. E. Green, Holly Guran, Alison Hicks, Susan Jaret McKinstry, Emily Kedar, Sharon Lopez Mooney, Wood Reede, VA Smith, Emily Tee, Ahrend Torrey, Thao Votang, William Welch, Nancy Yang, and James K. Zimmerman and photography by Robert Bulman. The issue’s cover image is from the editor, Troy Urquhart.

Digital and print versions of our fall issue are available through Mag Cloud. Digital versions of the issue are free, and perfect-bound copies of the issue will cost twelve dollars. You can order print copies and read the issue online at this link.