Depths: Letter from the EICs

Dear Readers,

In this world, there are places we cannot fully map.

The ocean floor remains more mysterious than the surface of the moon. Beneath layers of water, sediment, and silence, entire worlds drift beyond the reach of ordinary sight. We know they exist. We feel their pull. Yet their contours remain elusive.

For this summer issue, we invite you into the depths.

Depth is not simply a measure of distance. It is emotional, ancestral, creative. It gathers in the stories we inherit, the memories we revisit, the obsessions we cannot shake, and the questions that continue calling to us long after we think we’ve moved on.

Our prompt, “Echoes from the Oubliette,” began with a fascination for what we consign to the deepest parts of ourselves. The word oubliette comes from the French oublier: to forget. But forgetting is rarely permanent. Even what has been submerged has a way of resurfacing.

The works in this issue explore hidden currents and unseen ecosystems. They dive into grief and wonder, longing and transformation. They examine what it means to search beneath appearances and to linger where certainty dissolves.

There is a particular unease that accompanies deep water. It asks us to confront the limits of our perception. To accept that not everything can be illuminated at once. To trust ourselves enough to descend anyway.

Look carefully, for sometimes what rises from the depths is not an answer, but a doorway.

Thank you for joining us below the surface.

With gratitude,

Stef & L 

Co-Editors-in-Chief, Sage Cigarettes