Issue # 18 Fall 2019

Nonfiction - ​Fiction - Poetry - Art - eBook  

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Issue 18 of Jet Fuel Review! The editors are excited to share with you
the amazing collection of writing and artwork that comprise this issue. After months
of reading—and much deliberation—editors have carefully selected pieces that reflect
our mission to curate a publication which uplifts the many voices and experiences that
diversify the world we inhabit.

Housed at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, Jet Fuel Review is a student-run,
faculty-advised, nationally recognized literary journal that publishes writers and artists
from across the globe. This semester, Jet Fuel was honored to receive the College Media Association’s “Literary Magazine of the Year” Award at a four-year institution. Founded in 2011, Jet Fuel Review continues to grow with writers and artists who unapologetically challenge the artistic canon. We are honored to provide a platform for the multitude of voices that depict the complexities of the human condition. For example, our featured cover piece for this issue, The Judge, by poet and collage artist Brian Barker, is one of five pieces that not only mythologizes the relationship between the human and animal worlds, but also deconstructs subjects of death, mysticism, power, and violence.

In our poetry section, we present politically insightful pieces by writers such as
Kathleen McClung—a Rita Dove, Morton Marr, and Maria W. Faust winner—and Editors’
Choice-recognized author Keisha-Gaye Anderson. In our fiction section, we showcase
chilling prose pieces from Amy Sayre Baptista’s forthcoming work, The Whitechapel
Aubades, which are a tribute to the women brutally silenced by Jack the Ripper.
In our creative nonfiction section, we are thrilled to be the home of Wendy Fontaine’s
“Badge,” where the singular “I” transforms into the collective “we” as the story invites us
on a journey from adolescence to adulthood, only to leave the reader with a heaviness
one acquires with age. In addition to the pieces by our cover artist, Brian Barker, our
art section features striking images—a combination of painting and photography—by
Daisy Patton, who completed artist residencies at Minerva Projects, Anderson Ranch, the
Studios at MASS MoCA, among other places. Patton explores the social conventions of family
dynamics and the histories that are embedded within them.

There are many more powerful voices that swell within Issue 18. All of the pieces that
live within these pages mirror and reinvent marvels and the faults of humanity. The creative styles that are prevalent in both literary and visual frameworks in this issue conjure emotions that are both familiar yet transcendent of the human experience. We invite you to enjoy our 18th issue and we hope that you appreciate the enthralling assortment of work that we have
curated.

Read on!

Patricia Damocles & the Jet Fuel Review Editors