Editor’s Note
For the eleventh time since the spring of 2013, we are launching a new issue of Story|Houston—and embarking on a new editor’s note, the writing of which never ceases to be harder than it looks. After achieving the dual milestones of ten issues and a print anthology celebrating the aforementioned, Story|Houston has a reputation to uphold. The carefully selected writers and artists featured in Issue XI have done us proud.
Hibernophiles, rejoice. First up we have a piece by Irish novelist Robert Cremins, a Story|Houston veteran who fought beside us in the editorial trenches during the journal’s first year. The excellence of Cremins’s prose is exceeded only by its Irishness—that is, a strong sense of place. Part quest narrative, part coming-of-age tale, “Merrion Graffiti” tells the story of a Dublin teen’s attempt to distract himself from the hard questions about his future.
In a marked departure from “Graffiti”‘s rock and roll style, Issue XI features a thoughtful narrative by fiction newcomer Sarah Pollock, whose story “Survival” focuses on two young siblings having their first encounter with mortality. Pollock’s seamless merging of the contained inner world of childhood and the growing consciousness of adulthood is both beautiful and bittersweet.
In “Primas,” by emerging writer Jessica Martinez, we witness the reunion of two cousins, an occasion more sobering than its backdrop of a Selena tribute concert might suggest. In little more than ten pages, the narrator packs a punch. We expect good things from Martinez, who has just embarked on an MFA program this fall.
We round out Issue XI with a return to Story|Houston’s comedic roots. Daniel Uncapher’s “Bad Love in Little Bhazagraland” is an increasingly absurd story about a foreign book collector’s arrival on the Brooklyn arts scene. Not since Amechi Ngwe’s “Lunch with Dostoyevsky” in our first issue have we been so delighted by a satire of writers, books, and the readers who love them.
We’d like to give a special thanks to artists Matthew Boelsche, who has delivered another fantastic Driftwood cover, and Cameron McFarland, who has done a second round of excellent story illustrations. We are thrilled and honored to be able to continue providing an outlet and financial support for talented writers. If you would like to support the work of emerging writers, please donate below. Contributions of $20 or more will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology.
Mallory Chesser
Managing Editor
Story|Houston