From the Editors

The way in which failbetter strives to set itself apart from other journals can only be achieved by the work itself. It is the artists, then, that we have thanked and continue to thank for making such a difference possible. This, our third issue, is certainly no exception—the fiction, poetry, and art of this issue are quite set apart from any we have witnessed.

Note the eerie silence, in the form of dialogue, that is Dawn Raffel’s, "Once, Twice, Three Times." Or Sam Lipsyte’s beautifully wrought, "Flashback, Or Why Nobody Won The Fight Between Our Fathers In Walt Wilmer’s Toolshed," in which the friendship of two boys hangs in the balance of their fathers' somewhat boylike disagreement over a mower blade. Peter Christopher comes to us with "Flight," in which the sudden authority of an escaped convict becomes fugitive itself on a playground swing. Pamela Ryder’s "Arc" is a song of sorts, which sings to us the throes of a family during a drought. Jane Unrue’s "Echo," with its use of the old shipwrecked-on-a-deserted-island story is both a renewal of language and a new look at survival.

Who knows what M Sarki is doing, but in the reading of his poetry comes a feeling of discovery, of something true and truly new. Tanoury’s produce poems ring with the honest obsessions of obsessively honest man.

And, finally, Durlabh Singh—coming all the way to us from across the Atlantic—bringing art that dares, viewing after viewing, to be interpreted as anything but the very "otherness" that it is.

"Cadences, real cadences and quiet color. Careful and curved, cake and sober, all accounts and mixture, a guess at anything is righteous, should there be a call there would be a voice," says Gertrude Stein.

And, indeed, there is a call. And the voices are found right here. Cadences, real cadences. Ask Ryder about cadences. Let Raffel show you quiet color. And who, if not Unrue, is careful and curved? These and the others are unified in their difference. What brings them together is their will to stand apart. All accounts and mixture. Cake and sober. 

Come closer and read with your ears. 

Come closer and listen aloud.