Welcome to our fall issue. We’re so glad to have you. Hospitality is a curious act in trying times: it reminds us of our mutual humanity and our shared responsibilities. It feeds both the giver and the receiver at the soul level.... Read More

Do you ever wonder if those in power would do better if they knew better? In my more hopeful moments, I think: “maybe they just haven’t read the right books, or extended enough empathy. Maybe if—” And let’s admit, too, that we... Read More

2024—are we here already? Wars rage. An election looms. A probable candidate sits trial. I must admit: a younger me wished for better. What keeps this all from being pure doom and gloom is the possibility that this year still could be... Read More

Trustees of Strange / My partner and I were late arrivals to Stranger Things, but were finally pulled in by ubiquitous discussions of it (and, in my case, by my Atlanta rabbi’s appearance in one scene as an extra). We’re both... Read More

Viva la Fairy Tale Ending / Twenty-four hours ago, my spouse and I celebrated our wedding at our home with the entire Foreword family. It was lovely, and our company, of course, was beyond reproach. The sky was overcast, and the grass... Read More

Adaptions and Distractions / In one of the books featured in our upcoming issue, an immigrant who’s missing home opens an old suitcase, finds a discarded recipe, and is transported back to her childhood community. It’s a poignant... Read More

CPB Ecstasy / It’s true, to the point of being a truism, that early reading changes lives. We readers who were ourselves transformed by library story times, bedtime stories, and flashlights smuggled under the covers with which to savor... Read More

UP, UP, AND AWAY Last week, a friend asked me what coping methods I’d plucked from the miasma of Covid-19. Amid the usual suspects—yoga pants, craft cocktails made from home—I might have mentioned my resurrection of a strange... Read More