Dearest cute spooky lovelies of all realms and dimensions,
Welcome back to the haunted dam of your glittery dystopian dreams. We hope you’re dodging metaphorical buckets of pig blood deadfalled by energy-suckers and staying telekinetic queens of your universes. May the spirits in your TV keep their Elastigirl-ghost hands to themselves, even though you built your home on burials.
Pardon my horror movie rabbit holes. I couldn’t help but harp on the parallel between the gorgeous work we received for this issue and cinematic horror: the divine ability to intertwine the bliss of the mundane with the dread of dark upheavals in reality.
This collection ghost-waltz with loss, roaming through aisles of memories like bittersweet snacks and souvenirs. Lost loves become landscapes, birds, billboards, teeth. You’re dragged to the beach in the winter. Hermit crabs and human hearts are delivered to your doorstep. You become a mountain or worm or beached whale. The hum of snow becomes tv static.
Be wary: this issue haunts. These pieces scare themselves with grief, inhabit homes built in the omened future, beg to be vultures of the past. You’ll be sucked into your screen. I’ve been standing over my bed like Katie in Paranormal Activity for the last month or three. But clutching a king-sized bag of sour berry Gushers like a talisman and binging these jawbreaker powerhouse pieces of prose, poetry, and art from souls around the world.
We say every issue that this is the best one yet. Every issue continues to keep us enamored with the ethereal talent we receive. We stay eager to celebrate and showcase more and more voices that thunder-echo throughout the river of reader consciousness. We stay grateful to be a part of a supportive community of writers, artists, friends, family, extraterrestrials, beavers, etc. that keep us tethered to the love and light of the literary sphere.
We hope you love and obsess over this dam good collection of work that will leave you haunted. Grab your popcorn and pop your feet up. Welcome to the pearly gates of issue 8.
Tail slaps for all eternity,
Haley Winans and Ellery Beck
Beaver Magazine 