Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

There is a particular quality of time we grapple with. It’s a period of transition that holds its breath. As this cohort and staff of Paper Dragon moves forward, we find ourselves in just such a moment.

The world around us is changing with a speed that is both thrilling and slightly disorienting. Rockets up, markets down with a bit of global tumult thrown in for good measure. All driven by tools that once belonged to the realm of science fiction and now sit quietly in our pockets and on our desks, reshaping how we think and how we live. Every era believes itself to be uniquely difficult. And every era, in its own way, is right. History will, ultimately, reward ingenuity and stubbornness.

The changes underway are real, and they deserve serious attention. The paths of adaptation are ours to fine-tune. Politics, progress, prose and possibilities. All of it. This publication has always believed that the best thinking happens at the edges: by humans existing between disciplines and generations.

In the meantime, amid an epoch in flux, I’m off to the backyard to burn down branches and prune back vestiges of the Southern dead, making way for a new landscape. A new life.

We at the helm of Paper Dragon (Pinki, Edwina, Emily, Christopher and myself) are glad you are reading. We’ll keep writing and curating and ushering in new stories for humans to cling to.

With gratitude,

Ron Harris

Editor-in-Chief, Paper Dragon