Dearest Reader,
This latest edition of Iris is urgently interested in all things "Body and Disembodied". Our bodies are integral to how we inhabit the world. So how can we be intentional about knowing our bodies, which give form to all that we are? Our Iris writers have a lot to say, so read on for some fascinating poetry, essays, flash fiction, and more!
To start us off, Jackie Bond’s essay, “Finding Beauty in a Body that Moves”, eloquently narrates her experience of growing up overweight, the challenges of a ski accident, and the radical acceptance that she came to after learning how to truly move her body for herself — not for anyone else.
Simone Minor experiments with the contrapuntal in her piece, “The Fault Lines on My Body”, working with a poetic form that bridges two poems together so they can be read either horizontally or vertically. Carley Frajda also delights with her poem, “Orange Juice”. Carley's powerful command of language metamorphoses the image of eating oranges in the shower into a vivid feast for the senses.
Ella Powell’s essay, “In Conversation with John Donne and FKA Twigs: Rediscovering the Potential for Modern Love”, deftly channels an author of metaphysical poetry and looks forward to a star of modern music, seeing what these two artists might have to say about love from different eras. Curious about the theory and practice of pleasure activism for the everyday, Jordan Coleman interviews a professor from the Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality in her essay “The Pleasure of Knowing A Teacher Like Lisa Speidel”.
Susannah Baker’s brilliant autofiction piece, “feast, your eyes”, verges on Kafkaesque, creating a hypothetical reality where worms in one’s eyes can show you what you might not always see about yourself and the world. Cassie Dallas’s flash fiction piece, “Chicken Fight”, immerses her characters in the humidity and high temperatures of summer as they play in cool waters of the lake — this is all fun and games, until it isn’t.
Lindsey Smith’s timely philosophical essay, “60 Degrees and Sunny”, asks her readers to contemplate the nature of beauty and how we can actively seek it in a world that seems to be void of “the good”. Finally, to close out this issue, freelance writer Vaidehi Bhardwaj pens a thrilling exploration of desirability politics, womanhood, and violence in her fiction piece, “shark”.
Thank you to all our writers, artists and Communications staff at the Women’s Center! Lookout for more Iris on our social media and in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter!
With literary love,
Miriella Jiffar
Iris Magazine Editor 2024-2025
