Editor’s Note

The comics, poems, short stories, and nonfiction essays in this folio explore recovery, denial, joy, and, via a little speculative fiction, the saving or damning impacts of forgetting. 

I called for work on health and healing: from tarot to the medical industrial complex, medicating in the era of social media, Trump-ism, and climate change, because I hoped to curate an issue with perspectives on what ails us individually and globally, and on how to collectively gain strength here at the end of Trump’s first (and hopefully last) term.

In this moment policies designed to incorporate principles like nationalism and opposition to democracy into our existing political system are being passed. There are anti-LGBTQIA laws; there are more laws restricting women’s productive healthcare rights; there are children are in cages in the United States.

The do-gooders are tired. The resistance is fragmented. And the literal earth is struggling to survive. It’s an emergency. And we need to take care of ourselves to make it through. 

I’m proud to have this (and the upcoming Sudan issue) be the capstone to my role as a senior editor at [PANK]. It hosts  front-facing, imaginative, unpretentious explorations of how we get by and how we get better. 

I’ve seen—at national events and in the pages of the journal and our books—the intentional work required of editors in making room on the platform for folks who are typically left on the ground. And now, it’s time for me to set this project down. I’m transitioning once again, making room for new lessons.

Thanks to Jessica, Chris, and the  [PANK] team for the collegiality the commitment to strangeness, and literature. 

With gratitude and rigor,

Maya Marshall