Editor’s Note—2.2

LETTER from the Editors

Dear Reader,

As each issue begins to take form, an intricate structure begins to appear amongst its elements. Proximity and association are surely at the root, but there are a constellation of ideas at work in each piece which, when assembled, form a particularly marvelous patch of glittering night sky. With each issue, there has been a moment in which I’ve seen that sky come into clear focus and it is astonishing. It’s a proud experience to present each issue to you, Dear Reader, with the knowledge that you too will soon see stars.

In this issue, Matt Hauske talks TV westerns, first-person shooters, and kids. Anna Jarzab and Joanna MacKenzie briefly depart from their own worlds to talk books and writing in Colloquium‘s world. Our two poets, Shaindel Beers and Emily Nordling, weave mythology and history into voices of beautiful contemporaneity. We feature our first stage play, written by Martin Schwartz, and you can watch excerpts from its performance. Kerith Asma and Christine McKeon take up issues of how feminine identity is contsructed—in Asma, by fashion, in McKeon, by reproductive rhetoric. The sumptuous visuality of Maren Robinson and Nathan Rubinfeld are on display in their galleries, and Nick Fraccaro’s photoessay reveals the human secrets of the public library. Jeremiah Glazer offers an original piece of music as well as practical thought on working as an artist.

Dazzling, right?

I hope you’ll come back to this issue again and again in the coming weeks and spend a little more time with the pieces that capture your intellect and imagination. There’s a lot of sky to see, and it’s worth the time it takes to really look.

On behalf of the editorial board of Colloquium, I want to thank MAPH’s faculty and staff for their ongoing support—they keep MAPH alive and vibrant, and that’s what makes this enterprise possible. And I want to thank the editorial board of this magazine. Never has the board—both founding and senior editors—been more geographically distant from one another, and yet they continue to display tireless effort, endless patience, and boundless brilliance.

Enjoy the issue,

Bill Hutchison
Editor-in-Chief

PS:  Be in touch! Feel free to email us at colloquium(at)uchicago(d0t)edu.