In The Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot wrote, “You are not here to verify...you are here to kneel.” In this issue, our contributors invite us to be part of this kneeling, this witnessing of sustaining words and visual images, as well as the resurrecting of the physical world around us.
We find delight in hidden blackberry thickets, hold fast in the midst of tempests, break social conventions in a high school cafeteria. We “walk gently upon the earth” and cherish it. Our contributors remind us to, as Wendell Berry put it, “Practice resurrection”—one syllable, brushstroke, and photograph at a time.
FEATURING 2011 William Van Dyke Short Story Prize judged by Leif Inger