To some readers, the five pieces selected for this edition of ANMLY may appear to tell disparate stories. They immerse us in the reflections that surface from an unrequited love; the fear that drives a young child towards isolation and vengeance; and the pain that emerges from the death of a loved one. Their settings span worlds animated by magic and realities closer to our own. And yet, as I reflected on these works, I found myself struck by what they share. Each story deftly illustrates an aspect of human loss: its capacity for unfairness, its humbling depths, and of course, its diverse consequences.
In the context of our world—one where prejudice continues to threaten our most vulnerable communities, one where every morning seems to bring new casualties, and one where people, angry, afraid, and resilient, persist in living anyway—this edition in fiction explores the ways that we manage suffering. Our authors dare to ask us: when we are stripped of something that matters to us, how do we heal? Do we rage or grieve? Do we engage or disconnect? Do we yearn to remember or long to forget? Do we heal at all?
Our response to loss is not always beautiful. I am grateful to be a part of a publication that invites its readers to reckon with the unsettling and the uncomfortable, to challenge the impossibly perfect, incomplete portrayals of life that inundate our social media feeds and diminish our complexity. Thank you to our contributors for your work and our readers for your support. ANMLY #40 reminds us that, even in hardship, there is strength in writing beside each other.
—Claire Wyszynski
May 2025
Featured in this folio:
ANMLY #40 Fiction Team
Addie Tsai, Fiction Co-Editor
Kathryn Henion, Fiction Co-Editor
J.L. Moultrie, Assistant Fiction Editor & Poetry Reader & Nonfiction Reader
jonah wu, Assistant Fiction Editor
Dino de Haas, Assistant Fiction Editor
Carson Faust, Fiction Reader
Caitlin McKie, Fiction Reader
Solange Neema, Fiction Reader
Ada Onobu, Fiction Reader
Aisling Walsh, Fiction Reader
Claire Wyszynski, Fiction Reader