Starting on September 15th we’ll be releasing a special issue of The James Franco Review: Art You Engaged/Are you engaged? Writers, editors, and artists around the country explored what it meant for them to be politically or consciously engaged in their work and to also examine literature’s relationship to safety. Every time I read these essays I’m filled with a really deep gratitude and inspiration, and find new footing for what it means to be an artist right now. I hope you will too.

With work from: Nancy Jooyoun Kim, Maya Sonenberg, Eric Boyd, Autumn Brown of Octavia’s Brood, Karissa Chen of Hyphen Magazine, Gabrielle Bellot, Erin Sroka, Rochelle Hurt, Monica Lewis, Ahsan Butt, Alexandra Watson of Apogee, Kristi Moos of Poecology , Visual artist C. Davida Ingram, and more.

The issue will start rolling out on September 15th.