Editorial
Kristia Vasiloff and Maryam Shakeel
In efforts to be honest, to follow in the footsteps of all who contributed and submitted to this Issue, I find myself in the current position of a participant to crumbling. Issue 19: Crumble, showcases the range of emotions when we both allow and are jarred by such experiences. This is why I must first thank our amazing contributors, who have lent these pages life.
I want to thank our artists who created pockets of safety for us to contemplate, alchemize, and grieve in their honesty. So what is an editorial without give and take, with only praise and not the bravery to embrace the theme head-on myself? During the middle of producing this Issue, I had to be resuscitated due to organ failure. I found inside the irony of limitations that I was living the Issue I already felt so close to.
It is no exaggeration when I say that this issue could not have been produced if not for the incredible and steadfast work of our editors: Nwa, my Co-Editor in Chief and gentle reminder; Maryam, our Managing Editor and glue; Taqdees, our Non-Fiction Editor and worker-bee; Rameen, our Essay Editor and force of nature; Saniya, our Art Editor and personal Lancelot; Jabeen, our Prose/Flash Fiction Editor and enthusiast.
As a collective effort, Crumble promises to bring you the most demystified stances from the
pens aimed at dethroning the guardians of oppression. Contained within the fluid mosaic of
grief, love, lament, memory, pain, and loss, this issue holds the space for finding hope and
light. We hope it serves as a gentle shadow in the scorching sun—a refuge from suffering!
This issue is heart-eaten and raw, and to quote Dinos Christianopoulos, from whom the
cover art’s title came: many seeds that have tried to be buried. We hope you unearth parts of
yourself, grown, growing, and still buried, as we delve both into the grief and healing of
crumbling together.
May ease find you where it can,
Free occupied land,
May ease find you where it can,
Free occupied land,
Kristia Vasiloff – Co-Editor in Chief
Maryam Shakeel – Managing Editor