“Borders. They can separate and define geographical locations and boundaries. Borders can be literal or invisible to the eye. Politics, language, ideology, philosophy, poetics, religion, family, sexuality, culture, all of these ideas exist within and without borders. What happens when we cross a border? When we step outside our comfort zones or are made to check a box? What happens when we leave it blank?”
This summer we put out a call for writers and artists to consider the above words for our final issue of 2019 and my fellow editors and I we were so very pleased by the results. We invite you to step over the divide and immerse yourselves in the pieces found in this new issue of carte blanche, which take on the theme of “Borders” in a multitude of ways: In her sensual audio piece “We Kept On Making Love”, Moe Clark envisions the borders of our bodies and what happens when they melt away into the other, dissolving into a bounty of animals, spirits, and dreams. Or in Mona Awad’s “Monster”, an unnerving feminist modern fairy tale continuously tugs at the edges of our expectations. Natalie Wee’s poem “Frequent Flyer Program” takes on immigration, diaspora, and the divide between the heavens, land, and sea. Read more →
