I am writing this letter from my bedroom floor, where I’m sitting next to a cup of coffee—gone cold—that it’s way too late in the day to be drinking. I don’t know about you, but lately this disjointed posture has been pretty standard. My attention is often scattered and watered down, my mind pulled in a million different directions. There is so much to pay attention to. There is so much to be concerned about. Being in my 20s is probably to blame. Also the cell phones. I would bet good money that if you, too, have a frontal lobe that’s still in development and/or a smart phone, you probably feel similarly.

Despite this, I am a firm believer that reading and writing good stories is the answer—or at least an answer—to aimlessness. Words give us something to cling to. The stories and poems that have clung to me throughout my life have been, above all else, sincere. I hold onto sentences that make me feel understood, that illuminate some part of myself or the world that I was otherwise having trouble grasping. There have been times when I’ve been desperate, and someone else’s words have pointed me to beauty and hope I couldn’t otherwise see for myself. This transaction, between the writer and the reader, is one that I believe to be holy.

Loose Thread Literary Magazine is a place to put your words, whether they are polished sentences that have spent an eternity in your google docs or words that you’ve typed out haphazardly on your bedroom floor. There is so much value in creating and sharing, simply for the sake of it. As editors, we’d love to see stories (true or fictional) and poems that are earnest and expressive. Although there is certainly a time and place for satire or grit, we are most impressed by honest prose that still manages to leave the reader with a sense of hope. Through your stories and poems, we’d like to know you better, and untangle parts of humanity in the process. Your words have the power to shape and heal the word; we really believe that.

Warmly,

Loose Thread Editors

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