Editors' Note
While putting together this year’s issue, we found evocative glimpses of community and human connection in ways we didn’t expect. Maddie Barone’s “Our Governor Does Another Interview on Gay Marriage” situates intimate relationships within public policy. Angelique Zobitz’s “Calling a Spade a Spade” reflects on how we define ourselves through relationships to community and culture. Additionally, fragmented portraits like Joseph Ray York’s “Old Shanty” illustrate the multifaceted nature of identity and our perception of others.
This issue also marked our second year since reviving our prizes in poetry, prose, and art. We are very proud to announce our 2025 winners. These pieces placed the construction of identity at the forefront, challenging our notion of what it means to be ourselves in the face of a daunting future. Rebecca Hanauer’s essay “Grief, As Usual” disrupts traditional narrative in order to illustrate the splintering effect of grief. In her photograph “Elder at the Gwangjang Market,” Chaeeun Yoo immerses us into the heat and activity of another person’s life. Finally, in Sami Helgeson’s poem “Self as Trench,” the speaker recalls gazing out into a future of possibility while navigating a terrain of self-discovery.
We are endlessly thankful for everyone’s contributions to our literary community. This issue would not exist without the incredible amount of support we have received. We are ever grateful to our contributors, who surprise us and remind us why we continue to publish year after year. We would also like to thank our dedicated staff, who worked tirelessly to select these pieces. Finally, we thank our readers for supporting the talented group of writers and artists in our pages. We hope you enjoy Issue 74: Spring of The Penn Review.