Issue #219

Issue #219 Table of Contents (PDF, 294.9 KB)

Editorial: When Art Springs from Care

From the cover art to the poetry, the work in this Spring poetry issue emerges from many sources, including acts of care, resilience, and renewal. The featured artwork, Spring, is by an Antigonish artist who practices art as a method of care and healing. While the first poem opens with the “tastes” of Spring, the themes of care and renewal resonate throughout the issue. You will find a poem, entitled “After Everything” by Anonymous, which is this year’s winner of the Annual Atlantic Undergraduate Poetry Contest. Guest judge and poet Triny Finlay explains that the poem “confronts the effects of sexual assault in a multitude of ways, showing the psychological, social, and bureaucratic challenges faced by most survivors;” the poem “uses techniques such as anaphora to bring the reader inside the speaker’s unspeakable trauma” and “offers a flicker of hope in the final line.” In doing so, “After Everything” gives a voice to those who cannot say “Me Too.”

Collectively, these works invite the reader to ask, “what does it mean to practice care through art today?” These pages offer a place to reflect on how care, resilience, and renewal are creative acts themselves.

Finally, we want to offer a heartfelt thanks to Navneet Kaur, Administrative Assistant from 2022 to 2025, for her dedication to The Antigonish Review. She has been an essential caretaker of the behind-the-scenes work. While we will miss as a member of the team, we are delighted to celebrate her recent promotion and wish her every success in this new chapter. We hope you enjoy this Spring issue and the poems it brings together.

Kailin Wright
Editor, The Antigonish Review
Department of English,
St. Francis Xavier University