Volume 13

Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

Since the death of our founder, George Kovach, in April of 2020, everyone in the organization has been working tirelessly to sustain this singular periodical that he created. The task was none too small since, with the help of long-time editor Catherine Parnell, CONSEQUENCE Magazine had gained a reputation as a place for prose, poetry, and art that not only engendered conversations about the complicated experiences of the consequences of war, but did so to a high artistic degree, winning five Pushcarts in the last five years among other recognitions. To a person, we immediately felt the weight of the task.

Nearly eighteen months later, we’re proud to announce the periodical has grown secure. The most obvious way we did this was by listening to what George had been telling us about these complicated conversations—that they are as numerous as they are nuanced—so we opened our ears to more of them. This increased inclusivity meant that not only would we still be very much committed to literature and art which explore the experiences of combatants, but also that we’d be concerned with work produced by those who weren’t directly involved with the fighting but who were deeply affected nonetheless: victims and witnesses. This expanded ethos subsequently allowed us to complete macro-level changes without sacrificing discursive power or artistry. These changes were many, but the more striking examples include doubling the production of our annual print issues (now simply called Consequence), reimagining our website as a more nimble and engaging platform, instituting a development team to help expand our readership, and laying the foundation for continued community programs such as our Of Consequence series and our burgeoning creative writing workshops. These large-scale revisions positioned our organization (now Consequence Forum) to be more financially and artistically stable, but it also—and this is no accident—equipped us to amplify more of these essential experiences and voices.

In fact, like George, we see this ability to engender nuanced conversation as a driving force to our future so have taken steps to ensure its growth. Again, the ways we did this were manifold, but include everything from diversifying our editorial staff to include witnesses and victims, historians and scholars (in addition to veterans and writers) to juxtaposing in the journal prose, poetry, and art that are in obvious conversation with each other to creating a Poetry Feature Section entitled “What is War Poetry? A Focus on The Iliad” to exploring explicitly how we talk about war and conflict.

Our mandate here at Consequence Forum is straightforward: To create space(s) for people to have conversations about the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence. George already created some of this space. It is up to us to continue it and enlarge it.

We hope you’ll join us.

Sincerely,
The Editors