Beyond Costumes

A note from Editor-In-Chief Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice

I’m not a fan of Halloween. I love candy, especially Skittles, but something about dressing up as sexy, blood-streaked nurse doesn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s the unpleasant college memories: dudes as Frankenstein vomiting PBR, cats and fairies and mermaids shuffling around campus, slurring words, trying not to pass out in front of Papa John’s. Or maybe it’s one of those things I can blame on writing, along with “awkward at cocktail parties” and  “stares at people in restaurants.”

Writers are constantly inhabiting worlds not their own. Instead of donning a costume once a year, writers dress up everyday.

Getting inside the mind of a character can be exhausting or exhilarating. Sometimes it can be downright scary. Good writing takes us on detours, down unpaved driveways, and into the heart of the beast. And the best writing allows us to go outside ourselves without cat ears. 

This month Sally Burnette, K.C. Mead-Brewer, Laton Carter, and Kristie Robin Johnson, ask us to look beyond the costumes. Photography from David Rodriguez asks us to look closer. E. T. Cooper reviews Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg, Tabitha Blankenbiller interviews Sharon Harrigan, and Chris Wolford kicks off LISTEN LOUD, a new series giving you the musical rundown with links from around the internet.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as Batman enjoys the full-size Kit Kats.

KAR