A Time of Reflective Survival: NMR Volume II, Issue I

Another year has passed, and here we are again with the fall issue of The North Meridian Review. Academic publishing is incredibly slow, moving at a pace that makes a snail seem like a sprinter. For those unfamiliar with this glacial process, it can seem annoying and unnecessarily cumbersome, but personally I have always found it somewhat refreshing. As part of a generation of writers that grew up with the internet, a sphere of text with a speed limit around the velocity of light, it is comforting to know that in some venues projects are measured in months, years, and sometimes even longer.

            Yet that feature, which means academic writers and editors must choose their words carefully to avoid being obsolete before going to print, makes commenting on the immediacy of a rapidly changing world somewhat difficult. 2020 and 2021 have certainly been those types of hyperactive years. A global pandemic, massive protests, an attempted insurrection in the American capitol, and the tumultuous final year of Donald Trump’s presidency were events almost custom-tailored for tweets, hashtags, and minute-by-minute updates. Therefore, as the pieces of this current issue formed and rolled in over the course of a year, we at NMR were not surprised to see an emerging theme—reflective survival.

            I write this introduction from the campus of Marian University Indianapolis, a quiet corner of an unassuming Midwest city, but this year has shown that despite illusions of separation and isolation we are interconnected in profound ways. Millions have now died from the pandemic, and new variants still pose untold risks to our communities. Likewise, for much of the rest of the world the crisis has not even been alleviated due to hoarding of vaccines. And so, we have a situation where the bigotry of borders rears its ugly head yet again, hoarding vaccines for certain people, denying it to others. For those of us who have survived this first wave of pandemic, we reflect on what our survival means. What world is emerging from these multiple crises? What world do we fear, what world do we dream of, and where can we find ourselves in that negotiated in-between? Our peer-reviewed scholarly article by Indiana State University professor Adeyemi Doss explores this by asking us to question the divide of public and private conceptions of Blackness. Daniel Lockhart and Michelle Moyd, in our prose section, deal specifically with the themes of isolation, ruin, and persistence in an age of disease. Ricardo Quintana Vallejo, our new poetry editor, put out an excellent call for poems discussing the pandemic. Numerous poets from around the world responded with a host of viewpoints.

            That said, the fall issue of NMR is never dedicated to a single issue. Valentina Concu and I finish a two-part series translating and discussing testimonies from the Italian Holocaust, and Marcia Eppich-Harris, Luanne Castle, Daniel Morris, and Wm. Anthony Connolly write on topics ranging from memoir to the threat of political tyranny. We conclude, as always, with a book review section examining new titles in the various fields of the humanities.

            This journal originated out of the collective vision of a group of Indiana-based thinkers, writers, and artists, and was originally thought to be housed in the Department of History and Social Sciences at Marian University. Yet, as stated above, the world often moves faster than academic publishing, and in the summer of 2021 it was decided that the department would no longer exist, being split into two separate schools. What this means for the future of the journal remains to be seen. This journal’s central mission has been, and will continue to be, a space for reflection both in times of survival and prosperity. As long as we continue to publish, we will remain a humanities journal for humanity, a humane space in the face of inhumane forces. Where we go from here as a publication, a city, a country, and a global civilization is not yet written, but no matter where we go next the practice of surviving, reflecting, surviving again, and reflecting more will always be needed for us, the residents of the North Meridian—from the Circle City to around the globe.

            Dear reader, it is a pleasure and privilege to bring you this year’s fall edition of The North Meridian Review: A Journal of Culture and Scholarship.

Wesley R. Bishop

Managing and Founding Editor

The North Meridian Review

Indianapolis, Indiana

Fall 2021