A ship appears passing through the mist with rigging bare. Its haul today flaps wetly in my hands. The pages of Seaside Gothic Issue 11 have been collected. Ready to run aground and find their place on the shore.
They bury themselves into wet sand, slip into the shallows, cling to the cliffside, and scatter amongst the seaside villages. In this moment I understand that the coastline is no longer my own. Together we watch the anthropocene cannibalise itself like the great sea serpent devouring its tail. We are mere spectators to the show.
This Issue explores our capacity for connection. It moves through us like the ebb and flow of the tide. It reveals who we are and where we stand. Like the ship we sailed in on we emerge in understanding: substantial, fleshed out ideas staking claim and finding a home.
During times of low light each piece is enhanced by sharpened senses. Sunrises and sunsets strike against our words and our art, leaving behind deep impressions. Here there be carvers and poets and painters and writers. Look here for teachers and fortune tellers.
This thin strip of land and water is both end and beginning. You are at the edge. Time to haul you in. A steady beam from the lighthouse arcs across the horizon giving passage to all who venture here. I am a flame bearer now, the light is my flame and the bedrock of my existence is existing by the coast.
The ship returns to the mist, leaving me on the shore. I stand silently with my choices and hope you will join me at the water’s edge.
Issue 11
LOW LIGHT
Emily Fletcher is a writer from the North East of England currently completing a masters degree in English Literature with an interest in the Gothic. Her favourite Gothic novels turned TV shows are The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw.