letter from the editor
To the readers of honey & lime:
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Most days I am in awe of the privilege I have to be a part of honey & lime, to contribute to the creation of building homes for these words we’ve all committed our lives to. There’s an intimacy to giving language a joint space to breathe, so much so that it amazes me when pieces who’ve never met, pieces from all across the globe, find a way to be in conversation with each other so fluidly. I thank you all for trusting us with your words.
At this moment I am holding a line from Catherine Thoms’ story “helianthus” close to my heart: “I imagine I too am stretching, yearning for photosynthesis.” It feels right for this to be the first piece of the issue as it sets a tone for what’s to come. Woven across these pages there is so much sun, so much stretching, yearning. Writing is, I believe, a kind of hope towards growth, a decision to spill the seeds of ourselves onto the page while praying for gardens worthy of this life.
Our contributors have grown you a field. Come “Feel the daffodil bloom through the gap in your teeth” as Hallie Nowak guides you; mourn with Zain ul Abidin Khan Alizai “on some mornings, i snatch the sun/ from the sky’s embrace, place it/ on my tongue and let it simmer/ like hot butter”; remember what it is to feel as you journey with Jerry Chiemeke because “Maybe numbness is a far worse state than death.”
Dear reader, I truly hope this issue will do for you what it has done for me. That through these words, these loves and losses, through this field of bodies, you will step forward and find yourself turning skyward, throwing your head back, spreading your arms wide, as if to say: yes, thank you, more.
Jessica Nirvana Ram
Nonfiction Editor
honey & lime literary magazine