Cirrus@Austlit

'Of course it’s anticipatory to talk about the post-pandemic; all around the world, it seems, are reports that we have entered the post-COVID era, while locally we recognise that we might have outrun the pandemic, the disease itself still lingers. Moreover, its effects – on personal lives, on individual and national incomes, on the health and education systems which are still staggering toward recovery, and on the profoundly damaged art sector, which did so much to support wellbeing during the lockdowns – continue to frame our lives.

'The lateness of this issue of Meniscus is directly related to the COVID/ post-COVID effects; the editors have been struggling to find enough time to give proper attention to the submissions, and a number of the poems and stories included here address COVID, directly or indirectly. Other poems and stories pick up on ongoing issues of racism, climate change, gender relations, and the existential quo vadis story that is such an enduring theme in literary writing.' (Deb Wain and Jen Webb Editorial introduction)