From the Editors...

From the Editors... Camilla Jiyun Nam Lee, Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Seth Copeland, Managing Editor, and Jehane Sharah, Associate Editor Dear Reader, Time to say goodbye. This is my final issue as the Editor-in-Chief of Cream City Review. I started as an Assistant Editor in 2020. The years that followed were some of the most exciting times of my life. It was also a period to pick up the pieces from the pandemic and reboot CCR. We attended AWP 23 & 24 and held our first virtual reading since the pandemic. Exactly a year ago, I started feeling extreme fatigue that was different from the usual end of the semester burn-out. I pushed it aside, hoping that the summer would recharge me. However, when the Fall came around, I was still feeling unwell. A routine mammogram revealed cancer. Numerous hospital meetings followed, and I received my first chemo in December 2023, after we finished the production of 47.2. My life changed especially as an EIC. By the time we were accepting pieces for this issue, I was one-third through the assigned twenty-four sessions of chemo. This issue would not have been possible without all the work my colleagues put in while I was sick. I would like to thank Seth and Jehane, who kindly advised me to put myself first. Without their assurances and support, I would not have been able to focus on fighting cancer and persevering with chemotherapy and its debilitating side effects. Thank you to the genre editors Syd, Cass, Sass, Sophie, Emma and Bridgit, and our wonderful assistant editors. Also, my gratitude to Nita and Liam for their support and encouragement. Next year will be CCR's 50th anniversary. With the brilliant incoming Editor-in-Chief Jehane Sharah at the helm, I am certain CCR will enter an exciting new chapter. I will continue to cheer on, this time from the sidelines as an avid reader. And finally, thank you to the contributors and you, the readers - the heartbeats of this journal. Without you, we are not whole. Camilla Jiyun Nam Lee, Editor-in-Chief Next year, Cream City Review will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary, but we are part of an even older tradition that has proudly produced arts & letters from Downer Avenue for nearly a century. Before CCR, Cheshire (1931-1968) published creative writing and art from students at UWM. Today, that role is filled by our undergrad colleagues with Furrow, and Cheshire has recently End Page 6 been relaunched as our digital offshoot, publishing new media work which thrives off the printed page. These exciting offerings can be found on our website, and we encourage readers of this physical volume to see what else we're up to online. This issue concludes my time with CCR as well as my time at UWM. I am so very grateful to have had this opportunity. A lot has changed since I came to Milwaukee in 2019: a pandemic, social unrest, one contentious election, and now another bearing down upon us. These are difficult times, but we do not give into despair. For this issue, at CCR are honored to showcase the work of Palestinian American artist Amal Azzam. In this grim milieu, continued creative expression in all forms is not merely beneficial, but necessary. As authorities both at home and abroad fail to realize the world we believe in, it is up to the arts to remind those in power the people are watching, that truth will continue to be spoken to power, and, to quote to Good Grey Poet, that every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. We are. We will be. Dr. Seth Copeland, Managing Editor As Cream City Review approaches its 50th anniversary, we've been thinking about ways we can celebrate this remarkable milestone in 2025. An anthology? A competition? These are some of the ideas we've been discussing, so stay tuned! Creative Non-Fiction Editor, Sophie Nunberg, also suggested that it would be wonderful to hear from past editors, contributors and readers about their experiences of CCR. So, if you have a memory or story to tell about us– or were...