Conjunctions:75, Dispatches from Solitude Features New Work from Sandra Cisneros, H. G. Carrillo, Forrest Gander, Helena María Viramontes, Bennett Sims, Colin Channer, Rikki Ducornet, Kyoko Mori, John Yau, Charles Bernstein, Marc Anthony Richardson, Clare Beams, Brandon Hobson, Michael Ives, Nathaniel Mackey, and Rick Moody

While plagues have historically fostered every kind of loss—of freedom, of livelihood, of hope, of life itself—the isolation of grim eras such as the one we are now experiencing can also provoke introspection, fresh curiosity, and, with luck and mettle, singular creativity. Conjunctions:75, Dispatches from Solitude—the latest issue of the innovative literary magazine published by Bard College—gathers fiction, poetry, essays, and genre-bending work from writers far and wide who—despite the deficits of quarantine, self-isolation, and distancing—are closely bonded by a shared embrace of the written word and its ineffable powers of expression. Edited by novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow, Dispatches from Solitude features two previously unpublished songs by Sandra Cisneros, recipient of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature; a new short story by 2020 Bard Fiction Prize winner Clare Beams; recent fiction by the late H. G. Carrillo; and new writing by Forrest Gander, Helena María Viramontes, Bennett Sims, Colin Channer, Rikki Ducornet, Kyoko Mori, John Yau, Charles Bernstein, Marc Anthony Richardson, Brandon Hobson, Michael Ives, Nathaniel Mackey, and Rick Moody.

In his Editor’s Note, Morrow describes how plans for an entirely different fall issue, States of Play, were dashed as the coronavirus pandemic took over. “As hundreds, then thousands, began to die—among them dear friends of mine, such as Conjunctions donor Jay Hanus and longtime contributor H. G. Carrillo—New York and other cities were forced into lockdown,” writes Morrow. “COVID-19 became the daily and nightly shadow that fell across our lives. Amid this harrowing outbreak, another, more urgent theme for the fall Conjunctions became imperative, one where we might gather writing from those who were compelled to change their daily routines, even reevaluate what their work and lives meant to them. Contributions didn’t necessarily have to be about the pandemic, as such, but shaped by its constraints, by the terrors and courage it has provoked.”

Additional contributors to Dispatches from Solitude include Jane Pek, Meredith Stricker, Barbara Tran, David Ryan, Gillian Conoley, Yxta Maya Murray, Anne Waldman, Vanessa Chan, Cyan James, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Alyssa Pelish, Erin L. McCoy, Alan Rossi, John Darcy, Rae Armantrout, Sylvia Legris, and Susan Daitch.