On Crisis, Art, and Hope: a Note from Our Editor

On most days, regardless of my obligations or the weather, a cold, leaden weight lines my stomach and the inside of my ribcage. I can’t walk through the day without worrying about what kind of planet I’ll be leaving my child, or about the thousands of Palestinian children orphaned by bombs in Gaza, or the Israeli children whose parents remain hostages, their fate unknown. Though I experience little joys on a daily basis—indeed, I look for them with purpose—I have not found a way to live without chronic anxiety. At least, not if I want to remain emotionally intact instead of numb.

It was this feeling that sat under the conversations Prose Editor Gbolahan Adeola and I had about the prospect of putting together a special mini issue for Saranac Review. We were feeling the urgency of the moment, as well as the urgency to respond to it. As Adeola writes in his beautiful call for submissions for this issue, “The significance of art as a means of grappling with strife, personal and societal, is not a novel idea,” yet the idea remains significant and essential.

The prose and visual art in this special issue moved me deeply, as did my communication with the artists who made the work. Each piece examines an element of pain, challenge, trauma, or system with a sensitivity that reminds us that to look away can cause further harm, that to become numb protects no one. The art here also asks that we not just pay attention to what is painful, but to what brings us and the world joy—or, as Adeola writes, “the possibilities…for resistance, empowerment, solace, community—in which many of us find hope and inspiration.”

Only by maintaining hope—and I believe that making art is one of the greatest acts of hope at our disposal—can we change a world in crisis.

Thank you to our wonderful contributors, thank you to our Operations Assistant Lauren Waldron and our Social Media Manager, Kelli Charland. This issue would not exist without the talents and vision of Gbolahan Adeola. Thanks also to you, readers, for joining us for the work of building a hopeful literary community.

~ Sara Schaff, Executive Editor