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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Letter From The Editors – January 2021

Welcome to 2021. Sadly, the world has not changed markedly in the past few days. COVID-19 remains, racial injustice persists, global warming throws our seasons awry, and marginalized peoples fight to be heard. Despite this continuity of woes, we breathed a collective sigh of relief when we changed a single digit on our calendars. That, my friends, is the power of the written word.

That minor addendum, that edit, that redraft—something that leaves no tangible imprint on the world—is exactly what we needed to get back up and keep going. It is hope. It is meaning. It is a shot in the arm. It is the power that artists and poets recognize in their work and try desperately to share with the world. It is being human.

This year, we want to invite you to continue celebrating “Recovery & Resilience” with us because it is a daily affirmation of that hope and shared humanity. We are continuing to release new poetry each Wednesday and invite you to log on for reflection and inspiration. Each week features three poems with a thematic line that explore some unique facet of “Recovery & Resilience.”

At this time, I would also like to thank Daniel Horn, one of our first Managing Editors, and Beth Ann Downey, our first Editor-in-Chief for all of their work on volume 1. Through self-sacrifice, leadership, and countless hours in online meetings, they cultivated Paper Dragon from the germ of an idea into a full-fledged literary journal. Beth Ann in particular led the effort to create a new, beautiful, meaningful platform for creative work and marginalized voices. On behalf of the Paper Dragon staff—past, present, and future—thank you both, so very much.

Looking toward the future, I want to welcome Jaime Grookett, Nick Perez, and George MacMillan as new Managing Editors. They eagerly joined our staff in the eleventh hour as we were in the thick of producing “Recovery & Resilience.” I’m excited to incorporate their talents and experience into our ongoing mission.

Finally, I’m pleased to announce that we will are currently preparing for a spring issue. Please check back in for details soon. In the meantime, continue to enjoy “Recovery & Resilience” and celebrate the power of the written word.

Sincerely,

Bill Vargo

Editor-in-Chief

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Letter From The Staff – November 2020

In August, as part of a series on resilience, The New York Times ran author Jami Attenberg’s essay “Is Resilience Overrated?” In the article, Attenberg writes about how her fellow New Orleanians, celebrated for their resilience during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, have come to despise the word. Should the responsibility for resilience have been theirs in the first place, or should it have been the obligation of those who were elected and paid to represent their interests?  

 

Attenberg finds that those who have shown the greatest resilience regard it skeptically as a fetishization. By focusing in our first issue of Paper Dragon on recovery and resilience, were we perpetuating a narrative by which those in power could wash their hands of the less fortunate, all while continuing to exploit them?  

 

The fact is, right or wrong, many of us have had to buckle down, bootstrap, or get by in this year of changes. Maybe not to the extent of the Katrina survivors, or communities grappling with the horrific murders of George Floyd and Walter Wallace, Jr., or the incarcerated contributors to our “COVID on the Inside” package who are living and dying through the pandemic in an 8-by-10-foot cell, or immigrant families struggling to find work amidst bigotry and the economic shutdown, but in our own irrepressible ways.  

 

The over 650 people who sent us their stories or visions of recovery and resilience in just the handful of months we were open for submissions exemplified this. Of those hundreds, we’re proud to share our selections, like Chuck Teixeira’s COVID-era character study; Athira Unni and Jennifer Schomburg Kanke’s contemporary feminism; William Doreski’s heartrending optimism in incremental, personal change; Allan Lake’s sense of humor in the face of death; Dorothy Spears’ vanishing memory juxtaposed against Steven Bailey’s all-too-present mind, and facing paranoia through a pandemic.  

 

A few weeks ago, the United States showed its own resilience in the face of radical, right-wing militias, fascist attacks on our most vulnerable citizens, obstructionist government officials, outright racism, and, of course, a global pandemic. We voted. We voted in record numbers. We voted to reset the course of our country. During her victory speech, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris—the first woman, the first black person, the first person of Southeast Asian descent to be elected to the office—reminded us of Congressman John Lewis’ sentiment about democracy: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.” 

 

Similarly, resilience and recovery are not fixed states. They are not things we achieve. They are things we work at each hour, each day. The Latin root “re” necessitates something else: a previous condition, a connection to others, a doubling down. “Re” words do not merely exist. They are a process. With nearly half of all American voters having continued to endorse President Trump’s Muslim bans, child separation at the border, inaction on COVID, and tax plans benefitting only the wealthiest Americans, we must commit to the ongoing process of creating a culture reflective of our country’s highest ideals.  

 

We hope that this first volume of the Paper Dragon does not fetishize resilience and recovery, but inspires it. Much like the election a few weeks ago, we hope it rejuvenates and reinvigorates our readers to work toward recovery and to practice resilience, no matter what the future holds. During the difficult and stressful days of the past few weeks, it was your work and talent that kept us going, and we hope it provides the same boost to all of our readers. 

READ ISSUE ONE

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Letter From The Editors – October 2020

Dear readers, 

Six months ago, we had no idea what to expect when we launched Paper Dragon. Your enthusiastic response floored us. We received over 650 submissions hailing from our hometown of Philadelphia to locales as far away as Spain, Nigeria, India, and Australia. We were absolutely amazed by your talent, your voices, and the courage you have to share your work with the world.  

Over the past six months, we had our own obstacles to overcome. We spent countless hours in online meetings and groups chats. Unforeseen logistical problems forced us to adjust our goals and push back deadlines. Our staff shrunk as people moved out of our program and dealt with health and family issues.  

As we were finalizing this letter, we heard that the police killed Walter Wallace in west Philadelphia and protests and riots ensued. Struggling against the trivial, daily barriers fortune throws at us, as well as systemic, global, existential threats, it is easy to become overwhelmed. To be frozen to inaction. To resign ourselves to a bleak, powerless future.  

But we believe that we can make a difference, even if it is only in a small way, even if it is only in our own, small corner of the world. We believe that literature and art hold the keys to our common humanity, to understanding, to healing, to recovery and resilience. This work is important. Literature and art form a common cultural foundation that we will build our society on.  

Today, we are proud to announce our first publications on  www.drexelpaperdragon.com  and the release date of  Recovery & Resilience: November  20, 2020.  Until then, we want to give you a sampling of some of the  incredible work  we have the pleasure to publish. 

Today’s  three  poems speak to the importance of poetry and writing—the  inspiration, catharsis,  and  revolution it can stir in soul.   

Be sure to check back next week for  three  more inspiring poems and November  20  for full access to  Recovery & Resilience.   

Be safe. Be well, 

Beth Ann Downey 

Bill Vargo 

Daniel Horn 

Paper Dragon Managerial Editors

Begin Reading: “Why I Still Write”

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Letter From The Editors – April 2020