Emerge Literary Journal
Editor’s Note
It always takes much care to write in this space. In my time in various roles of Emerge Literary Journal, I have parried furious, often fanatical correspondence, gained at least on stalker, and somehow found time to marshal a great number of great pieces into the journal, sometimes from the merest germ of an idea. These positions have provided countless alarms, amusements, and diversions. Risks were rewarded, parties thrown, reputations challenged, ills addressed, obscurer talents hailed, cars impounded. And, I am beyond grateful for every single reader and editor whose curation has brought you each issue.
The literary publishing world is changing. Writers are changing. As writers we need spaces to express our thoughts, opinions, needs, desires, and goals. We need ways to connect with others in our busy lives, both in our writing and as ourselves. We come to this from various backgrounds, privileges, and interests. We each leave a bit behind. In every issue published since its inception in 2011, each Emerge Literary Journal contributor has left to every individual supporting and reading the journal an imprint of themselves. Their work is not only immortalized in each binding or screen, but rather has become an essential piece of who we are as writers, readers, and editors we’ll become.
This special 10th anniversary issue is dedicated to every contributor and reader that has supported Emerge Literary Journal since its foundation and continue to support it through the years. I hope you enjoy this issue, all the centos pieced together from a decade of some of the best words and lines out there.
So, read. Cut out the pieces that touch you. Glue them to your heart. Carry them with you. Read. Read. Read. Submit some more.
Be Well. Write Well. Read Well.
Warmest,
Ariana
Choked Up Blues | The Idea of You | Beyond My Fingertips || Aura Martin
Cento for the Ways We Do Death | Cento for when it’s 2:00 a.m. and I am Thinking About the Black Hole from Interstellar || Jared Beloff
Sleepwalking Season: A Cento | Sunlight Bruises: A Cento || Charlotte Hamrick
Grief, as Told By AI | BIOPSY OF SNAKES & FLORIDA || Rachael Crosbie
After the Flood | Transformation | All the things I want to tell you over coffee || Katy Naylor
Three Centos || William Householder
Cento for 17 Mutuals || Nicole Tallman
Cento for Young Lovers | Cento for When Two Lovers Embrace | Cento for Couples Who Drove in Silence || Garrison Harper
Emerge Literary Journal 