Fall 2023

Letter from the Editor

Volume 2 is here!

Volume 1 of Clamantis lasted for 14 editions, not by design, but because it took 14 editorial boards building on one another’s progress to create a community, a process, and a journal that is uniquely and consistently Clamantis. I was fortunate enough to serve on two of those 14 boards and I saw firsthand how much the journal developed with every edition. But this edition was different. Rather than regularly building new infrastructure, this board inherited a complete blueprint (both literally and figuratively) and used the time saved to dive deep with authors, work hand-in-hand with editors, and help every published piece shine, both individually, and collectively. More decisions than ever were formed by consensus, every board member was intimately involved with every step of the submission and publication processes, and, in the end, we had a product we believe perfectly encapsulates what the prior 14 editions built: a journal that is well-rounded, intellectually rigorous, poetically rewarding, and just a little silly. We present, Volume 2, Edition 1.

Starting a new volume, we spent a lot of time this edition reflecting on the past. Memory studies are a strength of Dartmouth’s MALS program, so we chose Haunting as this edition’s theme prior to submissions because we wanted to see how the MALS community thinks and writes about the complex relationship between the past and present. As always, the MALS community did not disappoint. Thanks to the brilliant submissions we received, we were able to compile a cover-to-cover read-through that is full of backward glances, reanimations, continuities, and unrest—that is, in a word, haunting. We present to you a ‘haunted house’ in all the best ways. While “Under a Wisteria Tree,” “Mill Town,” and “Haunted” physicalize ghostly spirits, “The Big Feed,” “Last Laugh,” and “Rosemary for Remembrance” gesture at pasts immemorial, and “Batman: Bonded by Feathers,” “Re-Membering Ellen,” and “Feelings without Names” offer new ways to re-engage the past. Every piece in Volume 2, Edition 1 reflects back on the pieces that precede it and foreshadows the pieces that follow it in ways that bring linear time and strict realism into question. We hope you use the New Hampshire winter cold as an excuse to cuddle up with a blanket and take this journey through Clamantis’s pages with us. Who knows what productive ghosts you may uncover?

Clamantis Editor-in-Chief

Jasmine Shirey

The Clamantis Board
Chennelle Channer, Lilabeth Martchenke, Sanyukta Shiv Kumar, and Vibha Vasanth

*December 2023