Issue 51: Fall / Winter 2023

Editor’s Note

This issue, which is a long time coming and of which our editorial team is extremely proud, features the winners of our recent contest, Isabella Kestermann (nonfiction) and Sophia Terazawa (poetry) as well as stunning pieces from our contest judges, Rita Mookerjee and Lisa Nikolidakis. We are thrilled that you can also read the work of runners up and some finalists here as well. We are excited to share with you reprinted interviews from our archive: James Baldwin (1986), Jorge Luis Borges (1982), Anaïs Nin (1976) and Christopher Isherwood (1975), all voices of resistance.

It is a strange time to be celebrating, but I do think that words and art, especially those of resistance, of everyday life and cultures that are often oppressed, and of joy and beauty are always worth celebration. The New Orleans Review’s very existence hinges on writers and artists who take risks to tell stories that often go untold, and we are immensely grateful to every single contributor in this issue for trusting us with their work and for giving us the privilege to share it.

Lastly, it is an immeasurable honor to feature Yara Ghabayen’s cover art, a tribute to her cousin Roza. Yara, who is a twenty-four-year-old artist from Gaza, writes that barded wire turned into wheat grass is “a symbol of resistance creating hope, and as long as there is hope, we love, we create, we live and we resist.” Yara has captured the very essence of NOR’s goal since the 1960s—to keep hope, love, creativity and resistance against oppression in our hearts and in our art all at once.

Thank you for reading.

Warmly,
Lindsay Sproul
Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s Note

Art

Interviews

Fiction

Poetry

Essays

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