Well, here it is—the final issue in our ten month celebration of ten years publishing The Suburban Review. This is the birthday issue, the milestone, and the feather in the cap of all the staff, writers, board directors, and supporters who have been involved since 2013. And most of all, this is a thank you—for the opportunity to learn from and lead this powerhouse of generous publishing, and for the chance to learn what Tenacity might mean in such an industry. Like the figures in Rebecca Stewart’s wonderful cover, we know that it involves a whole lot of work, and the joy of creation.
We begin this genuinely packed (biggest ever) issue with a miraculous poem by Jonno Revanche, whose ‘better angels’ propose that ‘We all have a right / to exist’. So how, understanding this fundamental human right, can we proceed without acknowledging the violence and death that shroud the release of this issue? We continue to bear witness to the genocide of Palestinians, and this weight hangs heavily over us all.
Gurmeet Kaur gives us ‘A Glossary of Grief’ to try to comprehend the levels of personal and global trauma experienced acutely over the months of violence in Gaza and more broadly over the histories of violent occupation; a trauma that will ‘shroud us in its haunting’.
In a more abstract turn, Monique Lyle explores ‘the present’, with a true gift of a poem that carries the reader along its repetition, turns, and return. The speaker in Xiaole Zhan’s ‘Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome’ experiences a father’s return as ‘his ghost / urinates loudly / beside my bed- / room walls’ in a display of unlikely (and unwelcome) tenacity.
Hossein Asgari delivers ‘Anti-Theft Door’, a piece of fiction that unravels the daily micro- and macro-aggressions that beat down the spirit of a character under an oppressive regime, illustrated with a vibrant and moving piece by Bronwyn Hack.
In ‘woolies mudcake’, Aries M. Gacutan turns the existence of the humble chocolate delight into a dramatic and majestic tale of tenacity, where Linda Ogonowski’s illustration ‘Oh, Brother!’ beautifully presents the strung out citizen who might just have forgotten the dang mudcake somewhere along the Unending Task List of Life.
We are thrilled to publish the surprising and life-giving short story ‘Zombie Crone’ by Gaele Sobott, who deftly examines the fucked experience of job-seeking and Centrelink-satisfying that so many of us have been battered by across our histories (and likely into our futures). Tina Huang’s poem ‘Red Mitsubishi Lancer’ thankfully reminds us that life can still be good in the light of real friendship and real love—the kind that doesn’t ask questions or make demands.
Hugh Coldwell-Ross’s ‘Kennel’ is simultaneously the weirdest short story you’ll read all year and a genuinely moving example of real tenacious love, and is followed by Jimmy Tran reminding us to always ‘Schedule for Good Times’ (more than once per year).
Rounding out the issue is another phenomenal piece of short fiction by Tom Campbell, which will keep the words ‘Eggy and I’ resonating happily in your brain forever, a beautiful poetic reckoning of pregnancy by Stephanie Powell in ‘Notes from Greenland’, and a message-in-a-condom from Chungxiao Qu to take with you into the new year, or the end of the world.
Speaking of, we’re unfunded next year, so how about subscribing or telling your friends? We’re not going anywhere (see: TENACITY), but it’s nice for everyone to get paid, y’know?
Ease into the season, don’t bust your baubles, and keep on keeping on. I know we will.