Kristin

“The Myth of Neutral Books”

The title of this post is in quotes because I appropriated it from an author friend’s newsletter, and I quote him here:

Primary days, like today in my state, make politics visible. Books work more slowly. They work under the surface, shaping our sympathies before we realize anything’s happening at all. Long before we vote, stories have already been teaching us what feels normal, what feels outrageous, what feels possible, and who deserves the benefit of the doubt. — Ryan Pozzi, Author

We were lucky enough to publish Ryan in Epistemic Lit’s Nostalgia issue last year, and I’ve since signed up for his newsletter, Life on the Midlist, which I look forward to reading every Tuesday because it always contains wisdom like the quote above. Sign up to get it in your inbox or read it on his website!

So why am I quoting Ryan here in my post? The political nature of writing is something that’s been on my mind lately. Our most recent Epistemic issue is overtly political–nothing neutral about it. Righteous Rage is the topic, and the writers brought fire! That said, I don’t agree with every viewpoint presented in the issue. At the outset of the magazine that was something I struggled mightily with but I don’t anymore; my co-founder and friend Melissa summed it up really, really well (far better than I ever could! so please read it!) in this interview she did for Emrae Publishing’s Read and Resist feature: Leaflets of Rebellion with Epistemic Lit.

So that brings me back to Ryan’s quote. Reading shapes us and shapes our worldview. What and who we pay attention to is a statement of value, of respect, of attention. As a publisher, I’m drawn to poems I don’t understand or with which I disagree because I want to listen and learn. My faith is a giant question mark these days but I firmly believe in the dignity of every human person, and I believe we are called to love every human person. I love by paying attention–what I choose to publish (and, separately, to read and to guide my children to read–a topic for another post!) is a reflection of what I’m paying attention to, what I’m listening to, what I’m trying to understand. What I hope others pay attention to. So we can have a little more love and a little less hate.

Can’t leave without encouraging you to preorder Ryan’s upcoming book, The Mess That Made Them. Click the cover below to preorder via bookshop dot com!

Cover of "The Mess that Made Them: How History's Greatest Artists failed, floundered, and made something brilliant anyway" by Ryan T. Pozzi

One-Sentence Poetry Special Issue

So if you read my interview linked in the last post you’ll know that I co-run two literary magazines (how on earth? that’s a story for another day). I’d love to tell you more about them and I have vague plans to (as much as I ever have plans for anything) but today I’m sharing our newest publication — For National Poetry Month (April) we invited our followers on social media (bluesky and instagram) to participate in a one-sentence poetry challenge, based on a one-word prompt each day. Then we chose a winner for each day and put them together in this special issue, which you can now read!

Enjoy! https://epistemiclit.com/nationalpoetrymonth-one/

Where have I been? Well… in bed.

I’ve been writing, I’ve been editing literary magazines, but mostly I’ve been… very sick. I really want to come back to actively posting here but honestly WordPress stresses me out and I’ve been getting in my own way about there being a “right” way to blog (make it pretty! graphics! links! etc) and all those things are just more than usually too much for me. SO I’m going to try to approach this like I approach the rest of my life (because I have to): do what I can, if I can, in whatever way works for me.

I’m starting with this — a link to an interview I recently did with Wild Willow Magazine for the “moms” issue. “Momming from bed” is the topic, and it gives a glimpse into where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to and the weird, sick person life I live (and therefore the weird life my family lives).

I’d be honored if you’d read it, and hopefully I’ll be back soon to talk about books and words and writing and reading and fighting book bans and raising kids who react to bookstores with wonder and awe and all such things. We’ll see what my body thinks.

I’m on page 43:

https://wildwillowmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/wwm-issue-6.pdf