Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Spring 2024 • Vol. XLVI No. 2 Literary Curiosities |

I Tell Etel Adnan about The Legend of Zelda

When you describe the empires that rise and fall under the watch of the moon, is there no ounce of fear? I am frozen by one who is not ashamed of their inability to move; I am ashamed by my inability to move. There are so many excuses to not enjoy the water in this feud against the moon. Are you afraid of losing air while you swim? Are you afraid of entering the fog? I will teach you the tricks; we pay attention to the organ’s bounce to find our way. Take on a new “I.” I imagine this fantasy logic a poem in your philosophies. Language can be so lush. This eeriness will always remind me of mountains, phrases that sound like fog cover their peaks. Even in games I am afraid; even in games I back down. I read poems and my toes curl around an anxious edge. My stories always end in a hypothetical death. We must find a way to go forward. 

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Summer Farah is a Palestinian American writer from California. The author of the chapbook I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2024), she organizes with the Radius of Arab American Writers and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. She is calling on you to recommit yourself to the liberation of the Palestinian people each day.

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