Editors’ Note

Welcome to the 2020 issue of the award-winning Still Life; we are proud to report that for the third consecutive year, Still Life has received a first-place award from the American Scholastic Press Association. (This makes us “3 for 3”!) We remain grateful for the ASPA’s feedback and their recognition—and reminder—that the arts, particularly on the community level, matter.

In this issue, you’ll find work by old friends and new voices. Their willingness to trust us with their creative work remains humbling. And to know that these poets and artists took the time to share their work, when many have literally been dealing with life-and-death matters linked to COVID-19, reminds us that the arts make life all the richer.

That richness is on display on the following pages. This year, many of the visual artists who submitted were working with “alternative photography” techniques, and the results are, as always, stunning. Many of our poets in this issue similarly offer us other “alternatives” for our reading pleasure—visual poems and prose poems, rhyme and free verse.

What remains tried and true in this issue (and, well, in all our previous issues) is that creativity abounds in the Great Lakes Bay Region. These poems and photos—shared in a pandemic; often produced in a year of political divide and civil unrest—remind us that we are more similar than different. Our common bond is our humanity, defined by moments of heartache, loss, and, unfortunately, violence, but also flashes of hope, love, and joy.

To our contributors, thank you for sharing those moments with us. To our readers, thank you for valuing this work with your attention. To our benefactors and supporters, thank you for making this publication a reality.

And to our winners, congratulations. This year’s winners were as follows: Mark Sheffield Brown, who received top prize in the Adult (Age 19+) category; Lauren Wells, who received top prize in the Young Adult (Age 13–18) category; and Jolyn H. Ohlendorf, Lauren Wells, and Madeline Bruessow who won in our 2020 “Poetry Postcard” contests.

Be safe, stay healthy, keep making art!

Christopher Giroux Assistant Director, SVSU Writing Center Co-Director, SVSU Center for Community Writing Associate Professor, SVSU English Department

Hideki Kihata Professor and Chair, SVSU Art Department

Helen Raica-Klotz Director, SVSU Writing Center Co-Director, SVSU Center for Community Writing