Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

Some of you might read this in the hush of Davis Library’s eighth floor or the din of the second. You might walk through these pages as you walk across the quad; or maybe your toes will curl into a soft blanket as you sit on your couch. Regardless of where you are, I ask that you pause and inhale, feel your ribs expand. Exhale, feel your lungs relax.

This edition of Cellar Door centers around the corporeal. Within these pages, writing and art capture lived experiences through bodies, pulling the space between our tangible realities and intangible emotions into focus. These poems, stories, personal narratives, and visual media remind us that we are the paint and canvas, pen and ink through which we interact with the world. We confront injustices, grow trepidatiously, love deeply, shout exuberantly, and pour those interactions into creative acts. In essence, writing and art are extensions of ourselves; our souls and emotions, but also our fingertips and footsteps.

While we can only choose a few select pieces to print in the magazine, I hope this edition reminds you that you are growing, experiencing, and creating just by taking a breath.

I am grateful to all the artists who took a risk and allowed their voices to grow by sharing their work with us.

Likewise, I am grateful to all the members of Cellar Door. This year, the magazine also expanded, splitting our prose section into fiction and nonfiction sections, creating publicity, website, and design editor positions, and hiring more staff. The success of this issue hinges on collaboration, brainstorming sessions, and various moments of poking my head out of my room to ask our treasurer (and my roommate) random questions about last minute details that escaped me. To Zoe, Lucy, Jane, Anistyn, Isabella, Meredith, Hope, and Xenia, to all of our staff readers, and to our wonderful adviser, Michael McFee, thank you. Cellar Door would not exist without your dedication to sharing the voices of UNC’s students with the Chapel Hill community.

To our contributors: thank you for reminding us that to create, we must first exist.

Best,

Abigail Welch, Editor-in-Chief