Foreword to Issue 3

With “The Vortex Issue,” Expanded Field is proud to release its third collection of words and images with a specific leitmotif.

This issue revolves around the theme of circular movement. As an emblem, we consider the vortex to present the weight that exists within the pieces of this issue. But choosing a vortex was not just for its symbolism; it’s a pattern in every way. Through this rather abstract, swirling image, we hope readers will see the human element in these new creative works, and perhaps notice how we all accelerate our rhythms only to slow them down again, get caught in whirling motions, and often feel trapped. It’s when we desire to go back that we realize we may have gone too far.

Why the need for such a claustrophobic theme? As with all of our issues, its theme has been shaped by this issue’s content. After ‘The Death Issue” and “The Impermanence Issue,” we found the present theme to be the common denominator of all the newly selected creative works. Thus, we are eager to introduce our readers to a new direction in this journal’s journey to question the sustainability of genre- or medium-specificity.

We would like to thank our contributors for this issue for submitting their works. Also, we’d like to thank and welcome the new members of Expanded Field’s editorial team. Finally, we’d like to give special thanks to Belgian writer Annelies Verbeke for re-publishing her translated short story ‘Indeed’ in this issue of our journal and to Valentina Zinna for providing us with her artwork.

As a way of double entendre, we quietly hope readers will get stuck in a downward spiral reading this issue, continuously moving from one piece to another – and finally ending up in the empty centre of the vortex, awaiting issue four.