Letter From the Editor

Dear Reader,

I’ve made a lot of wishes in my life, but none as great as this.

I was eighteen when I attended my first Fools meeting. It was the first semester of my Freshman year, and I had just experienced what I thought (at the time) was the worst heartbreak of my entire existence. After day four of laying miserably in my bed, neglecting to respond to any of my family members as I shoved down the storm of emotions catapulting around inside me, one of my friends decided she’d had enough. “That’s it,” she texted me, as I sat wallowing in the darkness of my dorm bedroom, “Get up. We’re going.” I didn't ask where––which was how I ended up sitting in the back row of an IMU theatre wearing an oversized pair of Iowa sweatpants and an old One Direction sweatshirt that hadn’t seen the light of day in six years. We sat in the back for two reasons: one, because dragging me out of bed had made us outrageously late; two, nobody else in the crowded room seemed to have gotten the “freshly broken up with and clearly not doing okay” outfit memo. So that’s how I began my relationship with Fools. Confused, aching, and a little bit lonely.

Volume 11 feels like a wish made on thousands of fallen eyelashes and drifting dandelions and shooting stars. During that first meeting I looked around the room filled with so many passionate, talented people and wished quietly to myself that I could be a part of the community that made Fools so special. Now, four years later, I’ve been granted that wish again and again. Every day I find myself in awe of the team of people who make Fools possible and who pour countless hours of dedication and enthusiasm and love into everything we produce. To everyone on the Fools team––thank you.

This volume feels honest, revealing, authentic, and powerfully real. Each of our contributors shared intimate parts of their lives that could only be expressed through their words, art, and photography. To all of you, I also say thank you––your pieces helped us discover hidden parts of ourselves that we couldn’t have found without your truth and vulnerability. I needed to read and see your work when I was heartbroken and wandering all those years ago, and I still need them now. Please keep creating; the world needs your beauty. 

As the clock strikes 11:11, I wish that you, reader, find something in these pages that speaks to you the way it spoke to us. When you’re finished, we’ll still be here. Again and again.

Always yours, 

Madeleine & the Fools Team