Read Semitas Magazine

Within the pages of Semitas Magazine, you will find a wide variety of works from new and emerging writers, many of whom have never before been published. You will read new works of fiction that tackle themes of loneliness and the oft-difficult task of bridging generational gaps within families or facing one’s own familial trauma. You will read poetry that questions societal pressures, grapples with grief and trauma, and wonders at the natural world. Furthermore, we have paired the new works of our contributors with a variety of works published before or during the early 20^th century. For instance, we have paired Thara Michaelis’s “A Bit of Pumpkin Spice” and Alec Miller’s “Mushroom Gravy” with Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” and Charlotte Mew’s “The Farmer’s Bride,” which contain themes surrounding the traditions of conservative rural life and the “farmer’s wife” trope. We have also paired Walter de la Mare’s nature poetry with Rilee Sukup’s “Restraints of Insignificance,” which wonders at the strength and beauty of the natural world in Alaska.

As you read, we hope that you will consider how each of these pieces works together thematically and compare the new works being written today with those written a century ago or more: Are we still asking the same questions and coming to terms with the same emotions, or have the ways in which we use different tropes and consider different themes changed? Most of all, we hope you enjoy the works we have chosen from our contributors and from the archive and find some new pieces and authors to champion.

Finally, we would like to thank all of our contributors as well as Dr. Pascha Sotolongo Stevenson, without whom the creation of this journal would not have been possible. And thank you, too, reader, for helping us fulfill our mission of introducing new names into the world. We are honored to be a part of these writers’ journeys and wish them all the best as they continue on their writerly journeys.

Rose Kottwitz, Editor-in-Chief