About this Issue

In springtime, the ground thaws and, with it, our spirits. Feelings that had lain dormant during frozen months emerge, bubbling to the surface.

In this issue, we explore passion, whether in poems by about love and desire, or in stories about anger ("Catharsis"), lust ("The Tempted Guru"), or hate-fueled religious fervor ("Her Sadistic Karma"). Or even, as in "The Red Trunks," a passion driven by a persistent premonition. At the same time, some people are remarkably devoid of passion, as we see in the story "The Forgotten Man."

Passion drove Christopher Columbus to discover the Americas ("Blatant Revisionism"), and sometimes our passions manifest in compulsions we don't understand ourselves ("The Class of 1995"). The strong emotions that drive us also drive our artwork, whether in literature or film, as shown by our coverage of both the Belgrade International Film Festival and the Philadelphia Film Festival.

As temperatures grow, birds return, flowers flourish, we invite you to explore with us the resurgence of emotion.