Dearest Monsters,

It’s been some time, hasn’t it? Well, now we’re back, and—in our humble opinion—better than ever. It’s been a gruelling few weeks, and the past few days have gone by in a bit of a hazy, panicky blur, but—here it is: our second issue, Resummoning.

Choosing a name for this issue proved, in the end, a simple thing. There was no theme tying it together. However, the name seemed only appropriate given our return after our long, yawning hiatus. I cannot thank our contributors enough for their patience, understanding and support over the past few months. And I cannot thank you, the reader, enough for, even after all this time, finding something in our humble enterprise to keep coming back to.

This being the very first issue of Monstering I curated as Editor-in-Chief, you can imagine just how nervous I feel to be releasing this into the world. However, I am mostly excited. As with our inaugural issue, we are blessed to feature some absolutely spectacular writers and artists in this issue. Some will be familiar names to our readership already: the works of Cade Leebron, Bei Jie Si, Kamila Rina, Liv Mammone, and Riley Dalca have found a home with Monstering once again—and how glad we are! Their poetry and art proves ever more spell-binding, and we can only hope that they continue submitting to us in the future.

Many of the artists in this issue, however, are new faces to our magazine: Ada Limón makes an appearance, taking us to the banks of “the muddy Mississippi”; Rebecca Cross’ poetry paints a striking portrait of trauma and of disability, a portrait many of us will recognise as familiar; LC Elliott regales us with a tale of a ghostly manor—of changelings, and dark and stormy nights. These wonderful creators are only a handful of the inspired people who have made this issue of Monstering a treasure to behold—and we are sure all of you will agree.

We truly hope that you enjoy this new issue of Monstering. We hope that you glimpse something of yourself in these pieces, and we hope that you will follow us on our journey forward, wherever it may lead.

May this issue signify a new new beginning: we rise again now, and ask you to rise with us.

With monstrosity,

Zara Williams
Editor-in-Chief