Hi everyone,
I am so excited to share the tenth edition of So Fi Zine with you, featuring 25 perceptive works of sociological fiction, poetry and visual art as well as a community editorial.
Usually, I invite an academic who has inspired my work with (and beyond) the zine to be part of each edition. These scholars write the stirring guest editorials that have opened #1 through #9 (which you can read here). For #10, given the milestone, I wanted to do something a little different. I asked anyone who has published in the zine or read the zine over the past five years to contribute a few lines reflecting on what creative social inquiry means for them, for me to anonymously collage together with everyone else’s submissions. I really did not know if this would work, and I am so pleased with the result—all the emotion, sensitivities, motivations and practices of the zine’s community reverberate across the extracts. I think the community editorial is a real celebration of the commitment to do academic work differently and engage deeply with issues of representation and social justice. It definitely won’t be the last time I try something like it.
I hope you get to spend time with all the pieces in #10, either reading online or in a DIY print copy in your hands. You’ll find WhatsApp arguments, a spotlight, blind questions, spectres of Venus, slow evolutions, chipped nails, cinnamon toast, a pale moon, an ashtray, lime green paint, intersections, mirrors, salt, surprise.
And I’ll just say, finally, given that in my own editorials I usually share what life has been like where I live while the zine has come together, that I had planned for this milestone to come last year but my wife became very, very sick. Every single #10 contributor reached out and their kind words meant a lot to me. She is doing much better now, and I hope you feel some of the care the authors and artists showed me as you read this special edition.
PS. I am using Twitter a lot less, and that was the main way I communicated all So Fi Zine things, so if you know someone who would like to be in the loop please do encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.
