Letter From The Staff – March 2021

Dear readers, 

 When we first embarked on the rollercoaster of launching Paper Dragon, we were met with more unknowns than knowns. We were on the precipice of a worldwide pandemic. The institutions that brought us comfort were being shuttered. Centuries of racial and social injustices in the United States were finally being confronted. Many of us took to the streets—not just in America but across the globe. Some stayed home to care for their families, hoping that change would come. 

We were resilient. We survived, true, but not in one piece. The tribulations of 2020 showed us how broken our society is, how damaged our relationships are, and how desecrated our planet has become. Nevertheless, broken things are still useful. Right here in Philadelphia, our beloved Liberty Bell with its renown crack has served as a clarion call for freedom for the past 250 years. That brokenness became a unifying symbol to empower change.  

The broken parts of our society can no longer be ignored. We are now engaged in a great quest to wrestle with an unjust past, seeking to answer the challenging questions of who we really are as a people and as a species. Shining a light on our broken parts encourages us to rise up, speak out, and enact lasting, meaningful reforms. Our job, as artists, is to imagine a new world, a world where these things are not broken, but have been reborn in a more useful, more glorious way.  

Today, it is time to move forward. It is time to move beyond resilience, to look clearly at what is broken, to dress old wounds, to heal, and to create something new. Today, we are announcing a spring edition of Paper Dragon. Your words and art moved us in issue one: “R&R – Recovery & Resilience.” Issue one gave us the courage to express ourselves, to maintain resilience in unprecedented times, and to make the long months of quarantine and isolation a little less lonely. Your words and art provided resilience in 2020. 

Now, in 2021, we want to look toward the future. We want to read your poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, to view your photography and artwork, to be inspired again. Our second issue’s theme is: 

Rebirth
Revival. Renewal. A turnaround. A metamorphosis. 

We’ll leave it to you to describe the meaning of rebirth through your art. That is our call to you. Our world is in a state of rebirth. How we embrace this rebirth will shape our future. Share your vision with us and with our readership. Share it with the world. Be heard. Lift up each other.  Celebrate each other. Celebrate the ideals that are universal to our humanity.  

Sincerely,

Bill Vargo 

Sarah Campli 

Jaime Grookett 

George MacMillan 

Nick Perez 

Paper Dragon Managing Editors 

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View The Current Letter From The Editors