Feels Blind Literary, Issue #7
Spring 2022

Spring 2022 Contributors

Note from the Editor in Chief

I’m thrilled Issue #7 is launching on our new website because this move symbolizes just how much Feels Blind Literary has grown since its initial launch. It also symbolizes how much this project has connected me with other writers and editors, as this switch wouldn’t have been possible without the talent and patience of the far more tech savvy Elizabeth Varel, Editor in Chief of Parhelion Magazine. Check them out if you haven’t already. Pro tip: their yearly Halloween issue is bananas.

I’m equally thrilled to be posting this letter at the start of AWP Philly. I’ve been counting down to this particular AWP for years, no joke. Even though I’m not currently living in the city, I’ll always consider Philly my home and I’m a proud Temple grad. We’re tabling at the Bookfair (T126), so stop by to say hello if you’re attending the conference. We’ll have merchandise including totes and stickers featuring our new mix tape logo. Each editor and literary intern at Feels Blind made a mix CD as well. Every single one was decorated and put together by hand, so no two look the same, and these will be free with any purchase.

We’re also hosting an AWP Offsite Event with rinky dink press on Thursday, 3/24, from 7-9 pm at Upstairs @ the 700, a very short Lyft or El ride from the Convention Center. This event is free and open to the public, so you do not need to be attending the conference to hang with us. A number of our past contributors will be reading poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction including Jillian Benedict, Michaux Dempster, Shannon Frost Greenstein, Melissa Johnson, Ashlen Renner, Patricia Smith, VA Smith, and Caitlin Upshall. We’ll also feature a table reading of a 10-minute play written by contributor Sarah Congress and set in Philadelphia. If you have not been to Upstairs @ the 700, the space is adorable. It looks like a vintage apartment, the bar resembling a kitchen. It’s also a Philly staple—I can’t even count how nights I spent there in undergrad. Unfortunately, just this week the original owners announced they’re selling it, so this event might be my last time hanging there. If any of our readers are independently wealthy and want to go in halfsies with me to purchase this spot so we can ensure it doesn’t become a Buffalo Wild Wings or something, drop me a line. I’ll quit my job and move to Philly tomorrow. I’m fun, but also hella organized and hardworking. I’m only half kidding.

In addition to our new website and AWP excitement, we are launching our first community outreach project this week—Feels Blind’s Zine Collaborative. Over the past several months, artists paired up with a handful of our contributors to transform their stories or essays. The first batch of these zines will be available for purchase at AWP and/or through our website: Shannon Frost Greenstein’s “Sleep Deprivation Was Banned by the Geneva Convention, You Know” illustrated by Annabelle Starr, Madison Gray’s “She Stepped into the Ocean” illustrated by Emily Belson, Tricia Leaf’s “The Buddy System” illustrated by Kelly Zhao, Brigette Pugh’s “Stray” illustrated by I.R. Sheppard, and Theresa Ronquillo’s “Holiday Guests” illustrated by Atieh Zanganeh. 100% of the profits from these sales will go to Safe Harbor, an organization providing free services to survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

We hope to see many of you at AWP, but for now we hope you enjoy reading Issue #7. We continue to be proud of this community we’re building. One of the best parts of being an editor is hearing from authors we published in the past about their current projects and successes. I have so much to share with you about what they’ve been up to on our new blog which will launch next month—we’ll need a little time to regroup after this week. There are several other big changes and projects on the horizon for me and us as well as we keep growing and learning together.

XO, Lindsay
Editor in Chief