The Myth of Contact

THE MYTH OF CONTACT

by Terese Mason Pierre and Avi Silver

There is a conflict regarding atoms, a question: are they always touching, or do they never make contact at all? As we are made up of atoms, another question must be asked: are we together, or are we alone?

Augur 5.2 holds the tension and tenderness of being with oneself while simultaneously trying to reach one another through narrative and myth. These stories are passed down through family and culture, leaving us as individuals to discover our relationship to the traditions we feel bound to. This new version of Augur shares with us all its broken, trusted reaching: for answers, for connection, for transformation, for self-actualization, for freedom to act, love and hope. In this issue, you'll find characters and speakers navigating the storied secrets of the ocean, vibrating calls of the cityscape, tender planetary graves, and the harsh rending of dreams deferred.

We are living in a world that is increasingly surreal—everything bends and breaks even as we find small joys to attach ourselves to. In this conflagration of grief, resilience, and joy, we still create art. This issue is full of surrealism. It asks: Is this really happening? And how does this keep happening? And what would happen if? We hope that the reader will feel something present in themself unfurl in each piece. Something small, something barely touching the edges of recognition. That we are not alone, even in singularity. We’re hopeful that as our readers make their way through this collection, they will explore their own relationship with sur/reality and measure it against their own personal mythologies.

Every piece here is the reflection of a connection between writer and editor (and first reader and copy-editor and typesetter and publisher and and and), all of these parties celebrating and trying to make sense of one another. We’re proud to be a part of this intimacy, and to be trusted with the writers’ work.

We’re also proud to welcome writer and poet Avi Silver with their first issue as Co-Editor-in-Chief. Working alongside Terese, Avi read hundreds of thousands of words that were forwarded to them from a team of over thirty passionate readers. While these stories and poems came from countless perspectives, they all seemed to flow together in one direction; eerie similarities in themes and motifs, all expressed in a striking variety of ways. Curating this issue felt like distilling the pieces that spoke best to what the world seemed to be saying right now, and yearning for. We hope that everyone who reads can find themself here.

This issue signals a new era—new leadership, newly promoted staff, new commitment to growth. AugurCon 2022 is back this year, too, and twice the size. We've got grant funding for Years 6 and 7. We arch and we settle and shift into a brighter, glimmering skin. 

We continually learn to create new processes and strategies, to care for each other when low, to dream bolder, to hold hard and fast onto the future.

Our dreams for the coming issues are painted in the sky in swathing shades of violet and tangerine—and that’s about all we’ll say on that for now. We can’t wait to do this all again.

Thank you for being with us.

Terese Mason Pierre and Avi Silver

Continued in Augur Magazine Issue 5.2...