Hello Connotation Press readers! I want to start this issue by sharing with you a brief excerpt from the commencement address given by the opera singer Jessye Norman to graduates of Oberlin College not too long ago:
“You see, art brings us together as a family because it is an individual expression of universal human experience. It comes from that part of us that is without fear, prejudice, malice or any of the other things that we create in order to separate ourselves one from the other. Art makes each of us whole by insisting that we use all of our senses, our heads and our hearts, that we express with our bodies, our voices, our hands, as well as with our minds.”
I say: Amen to that!
And our contributors this month deliver work deeply aligned with these sentiments. Featured writers Len Kuntz and Jodi Paloni insist that we use our heads and our hearts in their stunning stories, and in their interviews, they share themselves deeply. I dare you to read their stories and interviews without gasping aloud at least once.
Also in this issue, the uber-talented Steven Dunn makes each of us a little more whole with his stunning prose. Bill Yarrow insists that we use all of our senses with his beautiful pieces of flash. And finally, Paul Alan Ruben leaves us defenseless with his story, “A Minor Adjustment.”
In sharing this art, my wish is that we all come together a little closer.
Photo by Robert P. Kaye