06. Winter Solstice

The instinct to measure each day’s lengthening darkness can at times feel unavoidable. Every step brings an echo of new shadows, old harms, the gray of humanity. Compounded with our collective vitamin D deficiency, the urge to hibernate until New Years becomes warm and welcoming. Just a brief break from the long, cold clamor of approaching winter.

Enter the crisp smell of thirty-six degrees in the morning. Weak ankles that grow stronger with every lap around the ice rink. Cookie baking, twinkle lights, smiling until your face hurts. So. Much. Soup. The anticipation of a fresh slate that promises new realms of creativity. Winding words of wilding wonder into a second solstice issue, written as a reminder of the glint alive within the gloaming. Winter has arrived, without pause.

HamLit’s sixth issue features poetry and short fiction from nine PNW authors willfully embracing propulsion. Driving pace, energy soaring, backwards, forwards, lifewards, homewards. Each piece moves in its own time, heard long after its sped by, drawing us closer to day without ever foregoing night. This collection is a study in momentum:

The art of drifting after death. Chasing rainbows for gold. Starving from just dessert. A lost line connection. The shutter rhythm of flight. A truth that cuts two ways. Women worn, slipping back. Sense lost for cents saved. How tomorrow is tomorrow is tomorrow.

Kick off the slush from your boots. Ease closer to the fireplace and cozy up.

Here comes the light.

With continued gratitude to past and present editors, designers, authors, and readers; the PNW would not have Issue 06, or HamLit, without your partnership.