ISSUE 15 Editors
Poetry / Interviews Editor: Sneha Subramanian Kanta
Art / Photography Editor: Harshal Desai
Fiction Editor: Cathy Ulrich
Assistant Poetry Editors: Aiden Heung, Sylvia Santiago

Front Cover Art
‘Dance at Hawkesbury’ by Samarra Prahlad

Journal Layout and Cover Design
Harshal Desai

Dear Readers,

Our editorial team is committed to represent the diversity in literary publishing. Parentheses Journal stands in solidarity with Palestine and calls for a ceasefire. We are in grief with the Palestinian community and demand an end to genocide. As settlers in the land colonially known as Canada, we continue to stand against colonial violence and oppression.

It has been the longest interlude of not having been in active conversation with all of you through the year of 2023. I have had to take a step back as a result of several conjunctions. This has led me to think about the body in so many ways— the intergenerational trauma we carry through families; both, ours as well as the ones we join; albeit even if from the outside. There is no notion of separateness, only unison. In creating a holistic world for our future generations, I’m constantly weaving care, as in the poem “Coping” by Audre Lorde. The lines “a young boy / in my garden / is bailing out water / from his flower patch / when I ask him why / he tells me / young seeds that have not seen sun / forget / and drown easily.” The realization that our hands create layers and multitudes of trajectories is important. To be an active contributor of tenderness in a family means to burgeon a holistic healing process through future generations. Our children do not have to carry the burden of unreconciled trauma. It is made possible by a process of active listening and learning, one in which we wholly participate.

I’m thankful to our splendid previous contributors who stepped up during this interim and joined our editorial team as Assistant Poetry Editors. Join us in welcoming Aiden Heung and Sylvia Santiago, talented poets who are creating brilliant work.

“Eponymous” by Alanna Shaikh shares an intergenerational knowing, “Late Summer Ghazal” by Ally Ang juxtaposes an inner cartography and analogy with landscape, and “a series of Augusts” by Ashley Cline intersects repetition with an innate musicality. “Burning Garlands” by Avra Margariti is a story of wonderful dialogue and setting, “A Shape in the Forest” by Charles Hensler is an ecological meditation, and “Please Be Mine, Even Though I Don’t Fully Have Myself, Yet” by Exodus Oktavia Brownlow brings skillful interludes on the page. Huan He weaves engaging images into his poem “Searching”, Jack B. Bedell, a returning contributor closely meditates upon the topography of changing landscape in “Piano Concerto No. 17”, and Kenton K. Yee brings onomatopoeic singing through “It’s as if the wall were transparent”.

“There’s a Quantum Singularity in Accounts Payable” by Kristy Crabtree is an intricate wave of granularity, and the writer reflects the same aesthetic with brilliance in “Her/Me”. “Kitchen Elegy” by Lindy Biller amalgamates memory through place, “Poem that begins with hummingbirds and ends with a mountain lion” by Lisa Marie Oliver opens and flaps like the wings of a bird with dexterity, and “nai nai” by Lucy Yang is a caesura of plethora. “Crocodile Teeth” by Mandira Pattnaik includes magical myth, “Persephone’s return” by Paula Williamson is an unchronological account of systemic failure in healthcare, and “Winter” by Pauline Peters is encapsulates a streak of remembrance. “Burnt Home Ghazal” by Rahma O. Jimoh is a reimagination of how the becoming of a home sifts through time, “The Sleeper” by Réka Nyitrai is a slow unravel, and “i hold a photograph of my mother 3 months pregnant, 1970” by Renée M. Sgroi exemplifies varied idiosyncrasies. “Colors and Outlines” by Ruth Bavetta is a subtle analogy of what it means to inhabit a body, “On Childhood” by Sambhavi Dwivedi is a metamorphosis of recollection, and “Perfect World” by Sarwa Azeez is an awakening towards peace, in conjunction with moving towards a healed world for our children. “The Girl Imagines His Funeral Is A Fairy Tale” by Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick is a rendition of imagination through revisiting fantasy tales and “The Last Lunar Eclipse of the Year” by Shannon Frost Greenstein mixes time with grief. Steph Ellen Feeney in “Rice Cakes” solidifies the relationship of remembrance within a family and “Water Carving” by SY Brand correlates ecology and belonging.

For the interview feature, I conversed with Jane Wong, where we discussed her debut full-length collection of poems How to Not Be Afraid of Everything.

As we celebrate an oncoming spring, before the cherry trees become in full bloom by atmospheric pressure, we promise ourselves to be the continual bearers of strength into the bonds we create, so our future generations do not have to carry the burden of releasing and unlearning on their shoulders.

We thank our contributors for their patience as we worked through to put this issue together. These are brilliant voices and talents; they sing and celebrate. Join us as we bring you Issue Fifteen in all its glory.

Upwards and onwards.

The Editors

On Childhood – Sambhavi Dwivedi

Perfect World – Sarwa Azeez

The Girl Imagines His Funeral Is a Fairy Tale – Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick

A Shape in the Forest – Charles Hensler

Late Summer Ghazal – Ally Ang

The Sleeper – Réka Nyitrai

Winter – Pauline Peters

nai nai – Lucy Yang

Burnt Home Ghazal – Rahma O. Jimoh

Rice Cakes – Steph Ellen Feeney

Poem that begins with hummingbirds and ends with a mountain lion – Lisa Marie Oliver

Persephone’s return – Paula Williamson

Colors and Outlines – Ruth Bavetta

It’s as if the Wall Were Transparent – Kenton K. Yee

Eponymous – Alanna Shaikh

Water Carving – Sy Brand

Searching – Huan He

i hold a photograph of my mother 3 months pregnant, 1970 – Renée M. Sgroi

a series of Augusts – Ashley Cline

Piano Concerto No. 17 – Jack B. Bedell

“I’m always asking: what are we learning from the past?” – An Interview With Jane Wong

5 Artworks – Samarra Prahlad

3 Photographs – Emma Wilkins

5 Photographs – The Deconstructed Self – Natalie Christensen