I Invented Gravity

DEAR READER,

In the second year of a strange, upending, worldwide pandemic, the contributors of RiverCraft invented gravity. These writers met the wavering rules of nature with a new force, one that continually finds solid ground in grief, fear, uncertainty, joy, and love. We hope, reader, that these stories and poems help you discover (or maybe rediscover) land, too.

In this issue of RiverCraft, we accept that octopuses live at the bottoms of swimming pools, as in the work of Madeleine Sherbondy. Our world cracks surreally, and it’s re-makeable, as Grace Shelton and Hannah Mackey teach us when they summon lost boyfriends and estranged grandmothers, breathing with a relief that has us reaching for shorelines like Amy Jarvis. Julie Heaney and Taylor Ebersole observe the pulsing yearn of the body as it transfigures, learning to embrace the lost and unknown like Zachary Shiffman and, as Jordyn Taylor shows us, the earthly impression of a life.

Victoria DiMartino enlightens the silence of a moment and the simplicity of sunshine pouring in through cracked, yellow windowpanes. Our poets seek out redefinition, looking into the “copper sunsets and skies of iridescent aqua” that Emily Hizny imagines in addition to learning to shapeshift, to change our perspectives, to create the environment we need not only to survive, but to thrive, even if it means rebuilding what we find comfortable.

We ask, reader, that you let our authors conjure into existence worlds of fiction, truth, and the space in between that might reorient your gravity. Let this new falling overtake and lead you. We hope that, when you delve into the deep waters and vast earth of this collection, you find the complexity and the beauty of a new day.

SINCERELY,

THE EDITORS