I consider myself to be in the business of wonder. Just drawing breath astonishes me—I envision the rigors of capillary action, the pumping of lungs and the humming of blood, the bewildering beauty of this befuddling machine we call a body. Same as watching a leaf drop from a windy bough, or falling in love—for this is when the clouds become our natural home.

My mission in life is to experience wonder every day; if I don’t feel as if radiant energy were coursing through me as the evening spans into deepest night, then the loss haunts me as I drift into the dreamspeaking world. I believe in the magic and mystery of literature and art, which is why I write, why I teach, and why I joyfully edit this magazine. 

The students at SVA increase my capacity for wonder, and this new issue of the The Match Factory will showcase voices that flaunt the freewheeling surprise power of a Dada fireworks machine. 

In this issue you’ll find stories that rivet and awe, such as Fabian Palacio’s “Bo,” where a suspenseful life-or-death brawl in a forest does not quite end as you’d expect. Rae Weyn González’s narrator shares a tale of her grandfather’s experiences in a seminary, where the poor unfortunate student is accused of harboring a devil. In “Mrs. Illona,” Lillian Ansell pens a sharp little tale concerning lithe dancers who are nearly broken at the barre by a forceful dancing master, whose ferocity rivals that of the ballet impresario Boris Lermontov in The Red Shoes. 

Alana Green sings a sly ballad that summons up a moral drama that unfolds within a mythic landscape (so beloved in Western shoot-em-ups), and Diana Meneses spools a lovely and lyrical creation song that would have brought a smile to the stern lips of the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. “East 11 Street” by Alex Siple is a startling eulogy to the city streets, while “The Blind King” by Anja Huang is a shattering parable that speaks to the ancient creakiness of a monarch’s everlasting rule. 

If it’s straight-ahead prose you’re after, then hang out with Yunyi Dai as she pays a visit to her eccentric, ancestral village in China in “The Dai Village.” Vasavi Bubna shocks all of Mumbai with her passionate declaration to pursue the arts in “A For Art,” and Maizy Shepherd explores the seamy underbelly of film noir in her smart and sharply observed review of Robert Aldrich’s 1950s sock-to-the-jaw entertainment Kiss Me Deadly. 

We have also included another stellar installment of the Coronavirus Chronicles, in which SVA students give us detailed accounts of what life was like during the height of the pandemic that has wreaked incalculable misery and havoc, and effectively altered the global landscape. 

I’m also proud to present the featured artist for this issue, Bethany Bonfiglio, whose stunning oil paintings induce both reverie and delight. Hers is a talent that will shoot into the cosmos and resonate from star to star. 

Lastly, I want to dedicate a few words to Maryhelen Hendricks, PhD, Chair of Writing and Literacy, who retired in 2020. Maryhelen hired me on as a Writing Instructor at SVA nearly ten years ago, an occasion for which I hope she harbors no regrets. I’ve learned a great deal since then, much of it at her feet. Hers was the first classroom I entered in order to enhance my teaching abilities, and I never forgot her passionate lecturing on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, during which she convincingly encouraged the students to devour every inch of life. It was Maryhelen who believed in me enough to entrust me not only with the minds and spirits of hundreds of students, but also with this online magazine, which I cherish. I will miss her: her enthusiasm for the written arts, her willingness to trust my instincts in the classroom, her never-ending awe at the miracle of language and thought, have indelibly marked my soul. Whenever I left her office after stopping in for a brief chat, I wandered back into the streets with a seed of inspiration, either because of a film she mentioned, or a book that she plucked from her shelf and excitedly praised. Those were gifts to treasure. She deserves a beautiful retirement, full of glorious music, deep dives into miles of books, and breezy, easygoing days. She has devoted many decades of her life to this difficult craft, this complex work that is too often underappreciated, and for that I will always see her as nothing short of heroic.