It would seem the mad dash to fill the Nass’s literary issue might best warrant a clandestine mafia negotiation; by this logic, the editors (in fedoras and spats, sure, and affecting a Sicilian shtick) would send out coercive e-mails to campus literary types, who would know better than to refuse the offer.

But the reality of receiving submissions always becomes far easier than hypothesized, and we were proud in this issue to have had the opportunity to choose from a great breadth of campus literary talent.

Hardly had we dropped hints about the lit issue when Porter White over in England slammed three prose poems in our inbox. Her pieces collectively concern uncomfortable disconnection—whether between spouses, hipster mallrats, or even continents.

We but whispered of our desire for fiction, and so arrived the deluge of submissions—and creepy ones, at that. Check out the neuroses and perversions in the short stories of Zeb Blackwell, Rob Madole, and Taylor Beck: respectively, we meet a schizophrenic narcissist, a monkey fucker, and a surgeon who gets off with each incision. No need to stop just there. Discover the true meaning of “amphorae” with Efe Murad, or take a peculiar road trip with Jocelyn Miller. Even bend your way through the three-lined stanzas of John Raimo’s poem—a continually sensing spinal cord of lyricism.

Delve into the work of Liz Abernethy, who unleashes an excerpt from the first-ever English translation of Slimane Benaïssa’s Prophètes Sans Dieu. In translating this hilarious play from the largely unknown Algerian playwright, Abernethy wins a victory for all the marginalized literature that nudges for elbow room in the midst of the looming European-dominated canon.

So go on, then. Try out for size the wordplay in Chris Schlegel’s poetry or the British sentimentalism of Katherine McGirr. Seek out why there is no hammer for Jean Beebe, or immerse yourself in the world of Ted Meyer’s “Ghazal.”

It is with these humble offerings that we are proud to re-present some of our most faithful writers and introduce you to some of Princeton’s new crop literary promise. Regardless of whether or not we have a so-deemed lit issue, we would like to encourage all to submit prose, poetry, translations, and drama each and every week, so that the Nass can continue to expose Princeton’s diverse and deep literary talent.