Editor's Note
Dear Reader,
I'm writing these words on the cusp of Mother's Day here in the U.S., and my son and I have returned from the farmers' market where the line for fresh cut flowers wound long through market stalls and around the corner. I did not buy flowers for my mother, but we'll spend the day together, hiking and noshing. I'm grateful for her and the vaccine that allows us to hug again after a year apart. I'm grateful for the difficult conversations we've had about our sometimes-traumatic past, that she's young and in good health, and that I am able to love her whole-heartedly.
I know this is not true for everyone, and I'll be thinking about those of you for whom the day is more complicated, layered, or painful — as Father's Day is for me. I'll be thinking, too, of the many ways we are mothers: grieving moms, foster moms, adoptive moms, stepmoms, dog and cat moms, plant moms, and the folx who've learned to mother themselves. Maybe Mother's Day should really be about celebrating everyone who accomplished the monumental work of being born.
However you celebrate (and even if you don't), the May-June issue of West Trestle Review is our gift to you. Though it's not an issue dedicated to motherhood, it is splendid. This issue features work by Callie S. Blackstone, DeMisty Bellinger, Latorial Faison, Siaara Freeman, Jackleen Holton, Ann Hudson, Jill Kitchen, Maria S. Picone, Gaia Rajan, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Sara Quinn Rivara, Jessica Q. Stark, Lynne Thompson, Claudia Schatz, Martha Silano, with stunning art by Kelly Cressio-Moeller.
We are grateful to all of our contributors for sharing their talents with us. As always, give them a shout-out on social media if their work speaks to you, and we encourage you to use content warnings as well, if you feel they are needed.
Finally, we are dreaming up something special for our July-August issue, otherwise known as "the first anniversary issue," so watch for it.
Until then, write on!
Patricia Caspers
Founding / Managing Editor
I'm writing these words on the cusp of Mother's Day here in the U.S., and my son and I have returned from the farmers' market where the line for fresh cut flowers wound long through market stalls and around the corner. I did not buy flowers for my mother, but we'll spend the day together, hiking and noshing. I'm grateful for her and the vaccine that allows us to hug again after a year apart. I'm grateful for the difficult conversations we've had about our sometimes-traumatic past, that she's young and in good health, and that I am able to love her whole-heartedly.
I know this is not true for everyone, and I'll be thinking about those of you for whom the day is more complicated, layered, or painful — as Father's Day is for me. I'll be thinking, too, of the many ways we are mothers: grieving moms, foster moms, adoptive moms, stepmoms, dog and cat moms, plant moms, and the folx who've learned to mother themselves. Maybe Mother's Day should really be about celebrating everyone who accomplished the monumental work of being born.
However you celebrate (and even if you don't), the May-June issue of West Trestle Review is our gift to you. Though it's not an issue dedicated to motherhood, it is splendid. This issue features work by Callie S. Blackstone, DeMisty Bellinger, Latorial Faison, Siaara Freeman, Jackleen Holton, Ann Hudson, Jill Kitchen, Maria S. Picone, Gaia Rajan, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Sara Quinn Rivara, Jessica Q. Stark, Lynne Thompson, Claudia Schatz, Martha Silano, with stunning art by Kelly Cressio-Moeller.
We are grateful to all of our contributors for sharing their talents with us. As always, give them a shout-out on social media if their work speaks to you, and we encourage you to use content warnings as well, if you feel they are needed.
Finally, we are dreaming up something special for our July-August issue, otherwise known as "the first anniversary issue," so watch for it.
Until then, write on!
Patricia Caspers
Founding / Managing Editor
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