As this issue of Change Seven appears, the calendar is sliding into its second half, the days are shortening and nights are lengthening, and the mid-summer swelter is nearly upon us.
Perhaps it’s already here. As I write this in the recent history of late June, it is 90-some degrees here in the mountains of West Virginia, and I’m reminded of the barefoot summers of my childhood when I’d ride my bicycle in the early morning to the soundtrack of scolding blue jays and humming cicadas. Once it’d become too hot to bike (or fish, or hike, or mow the neighbor’s lawn for pocket money), I’d spend summer afternoons reading to the drone of the window fan in the cool and relative dark of my house. I passed hours in the company of Ray Bradbury and Tom Robbins — later Ursula LeGuin and Joan Didion and A.E. Housman — interrupted only by occasional trips to the air-conditioned public library to restock and rediscover. These peaceful afternoons spent between the pages of library books shaped my passion for good stories and great writing.
It’s our hope this issue of Change Seven will offer readers similar solace — and a collection of world-expanding writing to be enjoyed stretched out on the living room floor or in your favorite 70s beanbag chair. In addition to the wonderful essays, stories, and poems you’ve come to expect from the magazine, this issue features a sparkling conversation with Deesha Philyaw and Crystal Wilkinson, and stunning visual art from Boon LEE, Shelby McIntosh and george l stein.
We’re proud of the breadth and quality of the content in this issue and hope you’ll read and savor the whole magazine from cover-to-virtual-cover. There’s enough here for a whole summer of sweltering afternoons.
Dog dazed,
Doug Van Gundy
Change Seven Magazine 