Emerge Literary Journal: 2025

Editor’s Note

It’s October 2025. We’ve entered fall, the season of bright color. I love the turning of greens to fiery reds, oranges, yellows, how leaves make their bold last statement—they do not go gentle into that good night.

These fall days fill me with a certain restlessness—along with a promise of peace. It is a time for movement, while preparing to hunker down. We may bring out the heavy blankets, the flannel pjs—but it’s not yet time to put them on. Fall is also a season of choice. What bold statements will we make before the year’s end? Which of our colors are we ready to show the world? To let fall from our limbs onto the dank earth?

The gorgeous pieces in Issue 35 reflect this duality; they hold both the movement and the quiet. They look back at choices we made—and at the choices we wish we’d made but didn’t. The mood is not one of regret, though. It’s much more about living and learning, about letting go and making room for what is next. We must fall. Then go through winter before arriving at spring.

During this busy season, we thank you for spending your precious time with Emerge Literary Journal.

Wishing you all bursts of bright color along with the space for reflection. Enjoy these pieces that speak to both.

XOXO
Diane

Be Well. Write Well. Read Well.

Poetry

The Connection | I Said I Would Never Write About 2020 || Casey Reiland

Love Ate Rimbaud and All the Wild Horses | Ryan Di Francesco

Natural History | Mind Made || Sean Bates

Emily as Ecce Ancilla Domini by Dante Gabriel Rossetti || Darren Demaree

Reemergence | Low Tide || John Muro

The Melancholy Man || Anne Eyries

First date in a 50s diner | Russian doll || Satya Bosman

If I Could Change My Story | What Can I Get from a Tree? || Bill Ratner

Another Season | All My Dead Are Here || Seth Rosenbloom

Hermetic | Autastic || Christopher Phelps

Landings || Liona T. Burnham

Esperanza Corner

Dream Cloth || Amanda Callais

(You)Me (Me)You || Hannan Khan

The Language of Hurt || William Baker

Newsflash: Girl on Girder (D Train, Broadway/Lafayette) | For Vincent, Who Gave His Life to the Sun || James K. Zimmerman

ELJ believes that #mentalillnessawareness and #endingthestigma are of paramount importance. We believe in the necessity of sharing our mental illness and trauma stories to facilitate writing through illness and create broader awareness. We’ve created this corner to allow writers to not only share their stories but to be home to those who share in their experiences.