February 1, 2021
It’s been a year since we put out our first call for submissions, not knowing that by the time Issue 1 was published on April 1, 2020, we would be in varying states of “shelter in place” and in the middle of a global pandemic. As we reflect on the last year, the editors/readers at Feral (as well as our mother press, Animal Heart Press and our sister press, Femme Salve Books) all have one thing in common. Bringing you poetry and art from around the world has been one of our greatest joys during one of the weirdest, scariest, and most difficult years of our lives. As we said goodbye (and good riddance) to 2020 it seemed appropriate that our first issue of 2021 be love-themed. We love our contributors, we love our readers, we love bringing you this journal…so here we are. With a big, badass issue of LOVE!
Check out the playlist here:
A few things to note about this issue. With a few exceptions, we only published one poem by each poet so that we could publish more poets. Poets love writing about love so we wanted as many voices to be heard as possible. As always, we bring you voices from around the world with poets and artists currently living in 13 countries: Australia, England, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Scotland, The Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Wales and the United States (with contributors from 18 states). Also, because we do not put any restrictions on previous contributors submitting again, of our 58 contributors, 16 are returning and 42 are new to Feral. Of our 42 new contributors, 14 have been previously rejected by us. This is especially important because when we say “please submit again,” we mean it!
Finally, as the press “grandma” (that’s my real title), I’m dedicating this issue to my wonderful grands: Benjamin, Theodore and Magnolia. I LOVE YOU!!!
Beth Gordon
Managing Editor