FROM THE EDITOR
I returned 10 days ago from a place so far-flung from my frame of reference, where nature is revealed on such a formidable scale it tends to shift perspective from the concerns of the addled mind. Alaska. A mental reset on a grand stage. I went curious, knowing very little about the place, and returned wanting more. Pretty soon, though, it all seemed like a dream. Airport hustles, pat-downs and security heavies wrenched me from my reverie. In the final march to gate 8 on the way home, a guard at LAX paced in figure-8s with his dog. Head forward, chin jutting out, taunting. He looked straight out of a Far Right rally and yelled at us constantly to walk two-by-two. Hyper aggressive, manufactured chaos.
On the plane at last, I fell asleep almost immediately to avoid the crushing reality of what lay ahead for the next 13 hours. Wait ... where had I just been and what had happened? Longhaul flights do that to you. You exist for hours and hours in a portal that shrink-wraps experience and memory until you have to refer to the photos in your phone to see if it really happened at all. You time-travel back to reality in an atmosphere sealed for your safety and convenience. Would you like the scrambled eggs or the continental?
I left the US on a Sunday, got back on Tuesday and on Mother’s Day I tested positive for Covid. It’s my second time in two months. From a journey to a place of mythical proportions to isolation in Morningside. I wanted to cry “Unfair!” but the voice inside my head said, “GIRL, get a grip.” Who was listening, anyway? And why would they want to? Remember the mountains, the light, the bloody marys, the whales. Shut up and remember. Now, it is slowly all coming back, like the trickle of water from ice in the spring; memories bursting through the foggy Covid layers of my brain to reveal stories that lay dormant. Brilliant shards of light, as I re-emerge from the cave, with a new perspective.
This week we have the great pleasure and honour of featuring for our cover story the supreme Ockham Awards 2022 winner — Whiti Hereaka’s erotic, tragic love story wins Aotearoa’s richest literary prize. It is a novel for a fresh era and a story that can be felt, says David Herkt, who interviewed her. An exciting talent with a truly epic perspective.