This 2022 volume is our tenth issue. It is no coincidence, then, that it echoes the durability and usefulness of aluminum and tin, the traditional tenth-anniversary gifts. This volume, launched with a large-format print issue, quite literally reflects and shines and is our gift—from the staff and the contributors—to literary culture.
The design for 2022 emerges from a year of recognizing the complexities of choice, drawing boundaries, and acknowledging multidimensional anxieties of being between a rock and a hard place. The visual language draws on the mining of minerals—Arsenopyrite, Aluminum, Platinum, Tin, Tennantite, Titanium, Silver, Volcanic Rock. This volume surveys concepts of shared corners and shelters, of physical and metaphorical places and spaces where individuals, pods, and communities take refuge.
The online issues in the 2022 volume pick up elements of the print issue’s design, and the entire website is updated to reflect this and shape the reading experience.
Special Issue: California Coastal Commission K-12 Poetry Contest
Kindergarten–1st Grade
Winner
WILDERNESS IN MY CITY
Wyatt Thompson
Honorable Mention
THE PACIFIC, OCEAN
Zoe Corona
A BUSY DAY AT THE BEACH
Kavya S. Iyer
2nd–3rd Grade
Winner
WHALE JOURNEY
Adelaide Harrison Cook
Honorable Mention
I WANT TO LIVE IN THE OCEAN
Kavisha Gupta
HERMIT CRAB (AT BUCKHORN COVE)
Julien A. Mecum
UNTITLED
Saoirse Tien-Rickard
4th–6th Grade
Winner
GO WITH THE TIDE
Bony McKnight
Honorable Mention
SPECTATOR
Anusha Garg
THE OCEAN
Emytis Keyhan
MY MAGICAL PLACE
Micah Yao
7th–9th Grade
Winner
MY HOME
Emily Mattea Hembruch
Honorable Mention
BEACH THERAPY
Kyomin Kwon
THE OCEAN, OUR HOME
Jessica Liao
CRUDE
Aarav Parihar
THE SANDS OF TIME
Viola Seda
10th–12th Grade
Winner
BLACK GIRL SURFING
Zora Hollie
Honorable Mention
AMERICAN PIPIT
Ethne Anders
OH, HOW THE WATERS LIVE
Sophia Cho
NIGHT TIDES, REIMAGINED
Elyse Hwang
RAINBOW TROUT
Emma Keas
I COULD DANCE ON THE SEAS
Christina Li
LAST NIGHT I DREAMED OF HUNTINGTON BEACH
Dilinna Ugochukwu