A Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Issue 38 of StepAway Magazine.

I’m often asked how the editorial team here at StepAway order each issue of the magazine. One poet recently queried whether we simply put what we consider to be the best writing at the beginning of the issue. Another spotted a specific thematic thread, and complimented us on how each piece of poetry or prose harmonised with the next. The fact of the matter is, there is no specific formula. Of course, we always aim for a balanced, congruous arrangement, but our approach to ordering varies depending on the nature of the writing. A StepAway guest editor once commented on how strangely serendipitous it was how submissions from writers unbeknownst to one another can share illuminating and beautiful correspondences. Such pairings seem to drop into the StepAway submissions box on a surprisingly regular basis. Our current issue, for instance, coincidentally features two poems that focus on ginkgo trees. “16th and T, NW” by Keith David Parsons is about walking in Washington DC, whereas “Ginkgo Leaf Epiphany…” by Joan Leotta reminisces about walking the streets of Pittsburgh in the 1960s. Although both are walking narratives, the two poems communicate decidedly different messages. And yet, the writers are united in both having the glorious ginkgo as their focal point. Happenstances such as this do make me smile, as they are a subtle indicator of our shared experience as urban walkers, regardless of our geographic location.

Having said that, StepAway 38 is a strikingly and uncharacteristically discordant issue. The opening poems are about feeling uncomfortable on the street, where the city is a place of judgement,  intimidation, fear, violence, isolation and rebellion. Come the end of the issue, the city is something else. It is a place we return to fondly in our memories, a place where we thrive and find solace. When we were assembling this issue, I worried that the poems collected here clashed with one another. I gradually began to appreciate the clash. Because the city — any, and every city — has the potential to be all of these things at any one moment. It can be both predator and protector, based on individual perspective in a specific moment. And that is perhaps what makes urban walking so exciting. On each walk, we never truly know what the city will give us, will it be our friend or foe, will its streets embrace us, or prove coldly indifferent?

Twelve urban walkers who know how to read the changing face of the metropolis are featured here in StepAway 38: Geoffrey Aitken, Emma Atkins, Quinn Byrne, Lee Campbell, John Grey, Laura Hess, Shaun Hill, Joan Leotta, Keith David Parsons, Luke Sawczak, Maggie Sinclair & Patrick Wright.

So, without further ado, I urge you to trace the myriad of connections in this beautifully  conflicted issue and allow yourself to be transported.

Yours faithfully,

Darren Richard Carlaw

editor@stepawaymagazine.com