no. 23

editor’s editor’s editor’s note

First titled “elevated” and later nicknamed “the lost issue,” issue #23 of Headlight Anthology arrived to us in fragments. The reason is not mysterious: the pandemic put a lot more than lit journals on pause and, in 2020, for the first time in 22 years, Headlight was not printed. Then the pandemic continued… For more than the 2-year cycle of an MA at Concordia, which means the first managing editors of issue #23 (“team 23.1”), who started in 2019, have all graduated or moved on—as well as most of the editors who took over in 2020 (“team 23.2”). When, in the Fall of 2022, we were offered to edit issue #24, we wanted to honor #23 first.

We have the benefit of hindsight (and vaccines!), but in 2020, when team 23.2 was formed, they opened a second call for submissions, expecting to publish issue 23 in two parts. Yet the pandemic continued, funding didn’t come, bureaucracy made Zoom-distances grow… We know some contributors received acceptances then waited years; email addresses went defunct; others never got replies (this also happened to one of us before joining the team). We have learned a lot and are now making the Headlight submission process more transparent and resilient.

To anyone who should have been published here but is not, we are sorry. But we don’t offer just apologies. We want to do better: to re-invite you/us into community. We are lucky to be here, still. Just like democracy, this journal is not a spectator sport—we need you to engage, submit, read, share, critique.

To those published here, please know your pieces are part of a bigger dream— fragments of a “lost issue.” To those who are not, we hope you can glimpse through the fragments that are. To whoever thinks “fragment” is an ancient word, think again. That’s just what’s made it through tests, quarantines, new and newer pandemic protocols: a headlight shining through the cracks. Perhaps a cliché, but we are humbled. And we are proud of it.

—Carlos A. Pittella & Sherine Elbanhawy, co-managing editors of issue #24 & accidental archivists of issue #23

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fragments of a lost issue

Joel Robert Ferguson ● Attention
Brenna Tomas. Three drawings
Adriana Wiszniewska ● Nuclear Semiotics
Linzey Corridon ● Interview with a Chichiman
Graham Krenz. Three carvings
Adam Haiun ●● Doorway
Lucy Earle ● Memento
Hayden Ward ● How I Love My Friend! by Michael V. Smith
Mahta Riazi ● crystal blue
Markus Denil. Kink Baby
Jack Smith ● In Late July
Cailas Wiebe ●● The Party
Paisley Conrad ● Vertigo
Seth MacGregor ● Saskatoon Crush
Jason Mitchell. Two paintings
Claire Sigal ● Muslin Flu
Michael Shaw ● A Song About Grandpa
David D. ● Nature of Order

ART | ● POETRY | ●● FICTION

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EDITORIAL TEAM #23 (2019-2022)

Aaron Obedkoff. fiction editor (team 23.2)
Abigail Roelens. managing editor (23.1)
Alexandra Sweny. poetry editor, nonfiction editor (23.2)
Christine Tomiak. fiction editor (23.1), managing editor (23.2)
Cris Derfel. fiction editor (23.1–23.2)
Hannah Green. managing editor (23.1)
Janan Chan. poetry editor (23.1–23.2)
Joel Robert Ferguson. editor-in-chief (23.1)
Paisley Conrad. poetry editor, visual art editor, designer (23.1), managing editor (23.2)
Priscilla Jolly. nonfiction editor (23.1)
Prudence Gendron. poetry editor (23.1)
Sadie Barker. managing editor (23.1)
Thomas Molander. fiction editor (23.1)