Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

Springtime in the desert city of Tucson is more like an introduction to summer. For a few weeks the cacti surprise us with their bows of blooms, the mesquite and palo verde trees cover the streets with their confetti’d pollen, and you start seeing lizards in the periphery of your backyard. Then you open the door to June like an oven and the summer has arrived, always earlier than you expect it. It barges in whether you like it or not.

The process of building SPF has been one that started out of drought. After some unsavory experiences with sexism in the lit scene of Tucson, Sally Roundhouse and I felt a dire need for a literary space where we could grow what was valuable to us. So after gathering some fellow editors we admired and trusted, we created SPF under the wing of the non-profit literary arts foundation Casa Libre en La Solana.

We are so excited to bring you Issue #1 of SPF Lit Mag. It is full of writers whose work and artistry we already know and admire, and some who we’ve fallen in love with upon digital meeting. By virtue of the fact that many of our editors are also teachers, this issue is being released in June. We are taking deep breaths of that summer air and celebrating vacation with some literature for the masses. Coincidentally it is also Pride Month, so we’re celebrating that, too! A happy Pride Month to all our LGBTQIA authors and readers.

To get to the point, we’re itching to show you the succulence we’ve grown in our digital backyard. We are so grateful for the astounding writers in this issue and the writing community who helped make this issue happen.

All the summer love,

Nichole Goff (& Sally & Em & Ari & Ali Raz)