It is summer now, hot and sluggish, then full of sudden fierce storms down here in Austin. School’s out, schedules open up and stretch their limbs. A time, we are repeatedly told, for play, for lighthearted reading, book lists full of romantic comedies. This issue, with its graveyard of romances, could seem to be a retort to those recommendations, a cynic’s alternative to those carefree lists. But rom-coms, too, have their rules to follow—the circuitous routes, the missed connections and misunderstandings, all those obstacles thrown in the lovers’ path. And, for their part, the stories in this issue are fun. They’re funny. We laughed out loud in sympathetic recognition of Dr. Wu’s shortcomings, we thrilled at Lydi Conklin’s embrace of filth and Colleen Rosenfeld’s deftness with her wicked conceit. Moore and McCarthy and Liontas’s wide timelines pulled us in deep with novelistic grandeur. There is plenty of room for play in these pages.
ASF Issue 82 cover by Ruhee Maknojia.
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