Fall 2022 / Winter 2023

Letter from the Editorial Board

As we leave 2022 behind and look ahead to a new year, we find ourselves reflecting on our work with Clamantis. Last spring, the editorial board chose to break with past traditions. Rather than assign a theme for the issue, we allowed one to reveal itself through the work submitted to us. Upon reflection, the importance of resilience and solidarity emerged as an overarching theme among the work published in the Spring 2022 issue of Clamantis. During a season of uncertainty fraught with war, new potential pandemics, and the increasing power of oppressive regimes worldwide, artists of all mediums expressed stories of hope, community, and tenacity.

The Fall 2022 issue of Clamantis continues to explore the ideals set by our previous edition, but this time, our artists turned inward. Our contributors took the time to pause and reflect amidst the chaos and confusion of more school shootings, hurricane Ian and other dangerous weather events, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. In doing so, our contributors allowed the theme of Connection to organically develop throughout this edition: connection to self, family, place, and values. By taking this pause, our contributors have developed rich pieces filled with personality, thought, curiosity, and empathy.

From Loey Crooks and Angelea Consuelo Menendez, we discover the power of revelatory familial connections in prose. In her two essays, Maria Iriondo presents the significance of shared bonds through language and food. Kyle Singh offers two poems addressing the complexities of returning to one’s home and the challenges one faces when attempting to pass down life-long knowledge. LaDarius Dennison conversely offers us a poetic look into an optimistic future for the liberation of African Americans. Erin Bennett and E. Chandlee Bryan offer us prose and poetry exploring the connections between partners from the past and present, through various modes of communication. L. E. Martchenke and Chennelle Channer continue this connection between partners through poetry, also turning their respective attention to the connection one has with self and those shared on a city block. Arina Petrova and Andrée Solé dig into the Upper Valley to examine, through journalistic and research tactics, the factors contributing to the limited transportation options in the Upper Valley and how climate change is impacting the Appalachian Trail. Camellia Pham and Jasmine Shirey take research approaches to investigate Marie Nunes’s Retranslation of Li Qingzhao’s “Ru Meng Ling” from a Feminist Translation Approach, and breakdown Calvin Warren’s “Onticide,” addressing matters of race, homosexuality, and humanism. Alikzandr Malakov writes in prose about the role of morality when professional connections are pushed to their limits by circumstances beyond one’s control. D. Timothy Poisson continues the relationship between professionals in comic-form, expanding to include the personal connections shared between coworkers. Abhirupa Dasgupta and Emmett Frank bring us to the connection shared with oneself exploring sadness and a desire for a change of routine respectively.

It is our hope that upon reading this edition of Clamantis you reflect upon your connection with yourself and those around you; those relationships be nurtured and mended, mental health is acknowledged and addressed, and that empathy and sympathy for others be considered and expressed.

The Clamantis Board
Loey, Matt, Jasmine and Maria
January 2023