Letter From the Editor
Hello, and welcome to the Spring 2020 edition of Kiln & Via Magazine: The Outlandish and The Mundane. When we picked that theme for the magazine in December, neither Seth nor I realized how pertinent that theme would be a mere three months later. Just as we were preparing to collect the submissions and regroup the editing team to prepare for the new issue, campus was shut down. We were worried about completing the issue on time, or even at all. Not the least of our worries was that people would have more pressing issues at hand than submitting their work to the magazine, volunteering to review and edit the submissions, and preparing the websites for the new collection of short fiction, scripts, poetry, and essays.
Despite the difficulties, we had many, many submissions that were wonderfully written, and illustrate what the SLU student body can produce. Our amazing editing team worked very hard to get all the submissions together. One of my worries about producing the magazine was that, because of the unusual circumstances, we would not have as robust an editing team or process as we have had in the past. In years previous, editors have met up with the authors to provide direct feedback on their work and offer suggestions to bring out the best version of the work brought to us. But we were able to shift online, and the team of editors provided wonderful feedback on the submissions. Thank you to Lenya Goda, Celeste Woulfe, Jessica Henn, and Annalee Collins, for all your work.
Despite having to cancel the launch party, we were able to record several of the authors reading a portion of their work over Zoom. This will provide a way for authors to have their voice heard reading their poems or fiction, as well as provide a reflection of these strange times in the magazine for people to come back to for years. These recordings were a joy to create, as I had the chance to call many of the English majors I’ve shared a campus with for four years, and whose voices I will miss as I leave SLU. Please listen to these voices, which can be found on the same page where the author’s work is located.
I would also like to extend a very special thank you to Dr. Paul Lynch, Kiln & Via’s faculty sponsor. He helped keep us on direction, and provided support to Seth and me as we shaped the magazine in the early stages and prepared for publication in the later months of production.
Finally, despite our world feeling more outlandish than mundane as of late, we hope that the work of poetry and fiction in this edition might provide some sort of escape to an outlandish world of your choosing.
Thank you for taking the time to visit Spring 2020 Edition of Kiln & Via Magazine. Please enjoy.
Patrick Bernas
Head Editor.