Cover of “Crossroads,” the 2023 Volume 7 of KLIO featuring “Star-crossed” by Esmaeili Elham. Cover designed by Christine Choung (Creative Non-Fiction Editor).
Dear Readers,
“Crossroads,” or Volume 7 of KLIO, is finally here!
Last year, the KLIO staff decided to highlight in their their 2022 volume the vastly popular genres of science fiction and fantasy that they felt to be underrepresented in KLIO, as well as in other creative outlets and arts journals.
This year, after recognizing our collective desire to spend this semester highlighting the intermingling of different voices, cultures, and mediums, we announced our two main focuses: a translation initiative and an ekphrastic initiative.
The act of ekphrasis refers to creating a work of art or literature in response to another work of art or literature. Ekphrastic pieces encourage a dialogue, not just between different mediums of works, but between artists and creatives of different kinds who work together to craft a unique pair of works that complement and enhance each other.
At first, translation may seem like a technical act to some, but this changes upon further consideration. Translation is an art that draws direct connections between two cultures and languages and allows a piece to have twice the amount of meaning it could have.
The submissions from these initiatives as well as our general submissions from each category come together to tell a variety of different stories from a variety of different perspectives. Our initiatives allowed us to receive more of a diverse collection of submissions in which identity, content, and medium intersect. In more ways than one, the pieces featured in Volume 7 of KLIO bring us to a crossroads where poetry interacts with art through ekphrasis, and two languages interact through translation.
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The 2023 staff of KLIO is beyond excited about the high number and quality of submissions we received this year, and we would like to thank all of the contributors who made this volume possible. We are so grateful to get to showcase your brilliant works and we would like to encourage you to continue submitting to both KLIO and our sister journal Kalliope in the future.
Special thank you to Esmaeili Elham whose piece “Star-crossed” is featured on the cover of this year’s volume of KLIO. We thought the piece perfectly encapsulated the diversity of perspectives and healthy skepticism of our current state of life, whether that be on a nation-wide level or a personal level.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge and thank my lovely fellow KLIO staffers for their hard work and dedication this semester. Lastly, thank you to our faculty advisor Alison Jaenicke who guided us so wonderfully through many of our first experiences working with creative arts outlets. You all made the work very easy.
Without further ado, we are proud to present Volume 7 of KLIO. We hope you enjoy these pieces as much as we do.
Annika Shastry
Editor-in-Chief
KLIO 2023