indulgence (noun) 1. [C or U] an occasion when someone allows themselves or others to partake of something enjoyable, especially more than is good for them 2. [U] an occasion when someone’s shortcomings or misdeeds are excused by others Back in July 2016, the three founding editors had the privilege of attending Sarah Howe’s Writing Home Poetry Workshop. As the participants introduced themselves to one another, one of the representatives from a local university said, ‘We publish an online journal which is quite self-indulgent in nature.’ We all laughed because, after all, who would read a humble journal apart from its editors and contributors? The making of the fourth issue of EDGE has not been easy. Two of the founding editors are pursuing their postgraduate studies in the UK while the third is constantly planning lessons instead of having much time to reply to emails. We would like to thank Dr Tammy Ho Lai-Ming for her gentle reminders and the new members of the editorial team, Pamela Wong Wai Yi, Heather Wu Wei Ling and Samson Hui Chun Ho for their help. We are happy to see returning and new contributors, and we are delighted to start our fourth issue with the winning poems of Hong Kong Baptist University’s English Poetry Contest (Unpublished Work) 2016.
(“Hugging the shadow of trees” by Leung K a-Yu, 2014)
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Alberto Manguel states in The History of Reading that ‘[t]he existence of the text is a silent existence, silent until the moment in which a reader reads it. [...] All writing depends on the generosity of the reader.’ (179) Thank you for writing and reading works that, among other things, indulge in nostalgia, discuss queer rights, explore the self or offer distilled observations, without which our current issue would not have happened.