We’re constantly moving, even when we think we’re standing still, constantly struggling to adjust our vision even as the familiar transforms itself.
The work in this edition, on the theme of Migration, examines situations of change, movement from one reality to another. In some pieces, the migration is physical and profound. In others, it occurs without taking a single step. Much of the writing here reflects the movement across borders that so characterizes our times, but there are also pieces which depict internal migrations, pivotal moments when without anything changing, we understand that we have crossed an invisible border. We hope that the restlessness, the violence of change, the rush and blur that propels us on unexpectedly, almost cruelly, are somehow conveyed in these pages.
As writers and editors, we usually deal in words, but we are excited to be adding visual creativity to this issue as well, in the form of a photo essay by Keith Livers. Likewise, we are very pleased to round out this collection with an interview with the Asian Man Booker shortlist nominee, Xu Xi, a true citizen of the world who knows a thing or two about Migration.