The summer is little more than a memory, but the pieces in this issue, “Heat Wave” (Volume IX Issue 2 – Summer 2010), will give summer a graceful exit.
Whether it’s tributes to a poet who died on the beach (“Ballad of the Skylight Diner” and “Run Down By a Dune Buggy on Fire Island”) or memories of a first kiss at summer camp (“Kissing Peter Tork”), these pieces evoke summer’s warmth, its bright light, and its impermanence.
The artwork and photography in “Heat Wave” take us outside (“River Girl” and “Woman in Hutong”) and use the hot colors of summer (“Solar Eclipse” and “Fire Sky”). One of the youngest contributors we’ve ever had, Aditi Laddha, depicts her version of summer heat in a piece created especially for this issue.
My own summer has been busy, as I’ve spent it getting used to my newborn baby, now a little more than three months old. In order to get this issue out more quickly, I’ve used my own photographs for most of the graphics, rather than creating digital collages for each piece, as I usually do. Hopefully, my choices, which were all made with care, will be appreciated by the contributors.
And now, as summer gasps its last, join our contributors to commemorate it with one final “Heat Wave.”