Letter from the Editor

By Steve Howe

Issue 37 • Spring 2018

Dear Reader,

The bones of Issue 37 are filled with pain, loss, and ultimately hope, which you’ll find in the beautiful work of our contributors and in the hearts of the Blue Mesa Review staff. While reading and selecting final submissions, our friend, mentor, and faculty advisor, Mark Sundeen, and his wife, poet Cedar Brant, lost their infant son, Silver. He passed away within hours of birth.

After a short absence from the magazine, and still in the depths of grief, Mark returned to visit with the staff. It wasn’t intended as a memorial service, but it became something similar. Together we wept and laughed and ate and tried to make sense of the tragedy. Mark shared with us how he turned to literature to help him process his grief. He told us how important our work is in not only entertaining but helping people in difficult times, and how vital it is that we help these stories find their way into the world.

At the time I heard of Silver’s passing, I was reading Becoming Earth by Eva Saulitis, a meditation on mortality and grief as Saulitis fought, and ultimately lost her battle with breast cancer. A passage has stuck with me since. She writes:

“I do believe each suffering being deserves a legion of candlelight, all over the earth, burning in his or her name, in times of trouble. I believe the gesture matters. So I do my part.”

With this issue, which we dedicate to Mark, Cedar, and Silver, we try to do our part in bringing forward a little light in these times of trouble.

Steve Howe

Editor-in-Chief