Letter From the Editors
DEAR READER,
Artists have a strange way of finding both the elegance in absurdity, and the absurdity in elegance. As you open this magazine and sift through the pages, we push you to search for the hidden journeys, the subliminal moments, and the chaos rippling beneath the surface of each paragraph, stanza, and brush stroke. In these devilishly sweet poems and vivid stories, the right line will make you read it over and over again, no matter if it’s about the end of the world, or finding ways to live, not just survive. In our photographs, the perfect angle may capture the uncanny, what we can’t quite explain yet are entirely drawn to.
There is a certain elegance in language and form that takes shape of the absurd, which oftentimes mimics our every day. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the beauty of each line, even when the meat and bones of these creative works push you away and embrace you all at once. To coddle, then to startle, then to leave you retracing your steps, wondering how you got to the end.
Now more than ever, student artists, writers, and creatives are coming together to speak out against the discourse of our time, using their art to define themselves and what they truly find absurd. This edition has formed its voice around the topics that make us tick, that make us want to take a stand, and that demand alterations to the unjust that has settled into our daily lives.
As editors dock and set sail, RiverCraft strives to mirror the experiences of the creative student body. We encourage you to remain within the throes of your passions, finding ways to challenge the normal, and, as Margaret Atwood wrote, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”