The morning is livid with wet and colour. ~ Leonard Yip
We are proud to introduce the latest in nonfiction essays, a collection in which the elements are strongly featured, especially water and rain. Pretty much like a season of Tarkovsky films.
Picture this: Damp, floral skin. Grasses flowing like a river. A printing press set alight.
The elements are not just a backdrop or mere symbols, though. They are alive; they act, kill, and redeem. The rain falls hard, the kind of rain that saturates the earth and washes away everything with it. The river slices through the land like a razor blade. Floodwaters greedily swallow up homes and livelihoods.
Dear river, babbling smoothly… You seem calm in your murkiness. Where are you hiding their bodies? ~ Jessa Suganob
Fire is another story. It destroys, burns, and consumes. It leaves behind charred husks of vehicles on the street. It steals your grandfather’s printing press and the orange Mazda van that once carried you on unforgettable trips through mountain landscapes, through paradise.
As you read this, the war horses have been set free and are intent on setting the world on fire. But who can tell the difference between the fires of revenge and the fire of justice? Turn on the TV, or sign in to your social media of choice, and maybe you will see a woman in a Red Crescent uniform standing amid rising smoke from an oil refinery; a young man in a gas mask standing under another smoke-blanketed sky; and black rain falling, staining streets, cars, rooftops, birds, stray cats, and pet dogs. Yet in the same smoke, a friend or neighbour is clearing debris. A stranger is rescuing a schoolgirl from the rubble or a beloved pet cat from under a falling beam. And in the same smoke, someone is planting new seeds where the fields were blackened.
“Let it burn,” he said. “We will plant on the ashes.” ~ Anand Mohan Gupta
Leaving us looking for beauty in the ashes and growth in the rain…
Mizzy Hussain, Nonfiction Co-Editor
April 2026
Featured in this folio:
- Marie Anne Arreola
- Leonard Yip
- Jessa C. Suganob
- Courtney Ebert
- Becca Rose
- Athavarn Srikantharajah
- Anand Mohan Gupta
ANMLY #42 Nonfiction Team
Mizzy Hussain, Nonfiction Co-Editor
Thaer Husien, Nonfiction Co-Editor
leena aboutaleb, Nonfiction & Poetry Reader
Shuchi Agrawal, Nonfiction & Fiction Reader
Sloane Cutflower Allen, Nonfiction Reader
Fred Banks, Nonfiction Reader
Joefel Bolo, Nonfiction Reader
Jie Venus Cohen, Nonfiction Reader
Ridwan Fasasi, Nonfiction Reader
noam keim, Nonfiction Reader
Celia Lan, Nonfiction Reader
Shranoup Tandukar, Nonfiction & Poetry Reader