Dear Reader,

What is it like to be out of place?
What is it like to lose your home?

When we picked the theme of “exile” a year ago, we had no idea just what 2017 would hold. We hoped to tap into the feeling we all experience some time or another, i.e. losing one’s place due to unforeseen, uncontrollable, often imposing circumstances.

We were also naïve.

A year of refugees escaping deadly wars and facing closed borders. A year of increased immigrant movements and increased anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. This was exile in its brutally literal form. How could we release an issue that would do justice to these gritty realities?

We can’t, and we don’t pretend to be able to do so. But we are so privileged to feature some of those very voices: voices that emerge from the trials, voices that embody an unmatched bravery-cum-resilience, voices that tell their stories no matter how traumatic. These include award-winning poets, Sholeh Wolpé and Nathalie Handal, whose work explores dislocation, home, travel, exile and violence.

We also feature several pieces which deal with a more metaphorical exile including the titular story from award-winning Tom Vowler’s short story collection, Dazzling the Gods. We are also delighted to publish an excerpt from Patricia Grace King’s novella, Day of All Saints, which won the 2017 Miami University Novella Prize.

Whether literal or figurative, we have seven pieces which in the face of unwitting fear, uncertainty and intimidation boldly engage with exile and its inevitable implications on our lives.

It was truly a year of feeling—of being—displaced. But we must not turn our faces away and our deaf ears towards and keep our mouths shut; rather we must see, we must listen, we must share. We pray that Transect’s fifth issue even slightly contributes to standing with those who have been exiled.

Sincerely,

Justin and Ariel
Editors-in-Chief