Letter from the Editor 

Dearest readers,

Our Summer 2025 issue is a scrapbook ode to motherhood. I am blessed to present you with our contributors’ beautiful work: work that reminds us to tear down borders, deconstruct the empires that contain us, and shout in the face of apocalypse. 

The apocalypse is now. In six months, the United States’ fascist administration has shut down hundreds of national agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development. 83% of its programs have been cut, including HIV/AIDS prevention. Over 100,000 federal employees have been fired. 50,000 people have been kidnapped and imprisoned by ICE. The Department of Education lost 95% of its employees, and the National Endowment for the Arts has cut funding for over 70 literary magazines and rescinded grants for numerous small presses. Genocide and humanitarian crises continue in Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, the Congo, and Myanmar. Even in the microcosm, we are suffering. Fall for the Book, our local literary festival, is at risk of losing $25K in funding. George Mason University has renamed its DEI office and vowed to comply with all legal mandates. Our staff is devastated and exhausted by our world’s continuous economic, political, and existential turmoil; but most of all, we are scared for what the future holds.

What can we do in an apocalypse? Wield our limited power. Protest, boycott, send heated emails. Rest. Make art. Laugh, cry; recite poetry in the shower, in the bedroom; write grocery lists minus the $8 cartons of eggs. Leave X, reject Amazon. Fund other artists, read other art, and use our privilege for something good. 

I’m continuously reminded that our intersectionality is what gives us the strength to protest, create, and make ourselves heard. Words themselves don’t make things better, but they are read by the people who can.  

So to Speak, funded or not, legal or not, is here for the long haul.  
We love you, 

Satori Good
Editor-in-Chief