Dear Reader,

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When the northern lights appeared at unusual latitudes this March, the night sky above sections of the United States and Canada became briefly dappled in pink and green streaks. The aurora symbolizes otherworldly, mystical beauty in the otherwise everyday. Yet there's intimacy with auroras as well: our collective admiration for the cosmos, how we each treasure these stunning natural displays in our own ways.

 

The poetry, prose, and artwork in Sophon Lit's fourth issue span beauties intimate and grand, cosmic and tangible, whether we have "stars brushing against...ankles" in "Depth" by Devon Neal or sins "[dappling] into light" in "In Which God & I Compare Nakedness as Second Language" by Ayanna Uppal. Philip Baker's lush, exhilarating poem "Saint Elmo's Fire" captures the beauty of downpour and communal love, flowing lines like rain but also the ebb and flow of the northern lights. 

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To our readers, I leave you with this epiphany Shannon Trotter's piece "Poet on a Pink Moon" reminds us of: "I am not a stranger glaring at them from across the sky, but a young poet with a glistening eye." Despite geography and culture separating our global community of artists and appreciators, there is warmth—there is color—in the intersections of our love for stories. I hope you feel the luminous "glistening eye" of our contributors, and I hope you find your own auroras in your lives, in this issue and beyond. 

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With love and gratitude, 

Ava Chen

Editor-in-Chief