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Perennial

By Kristine Jepsen

March 18, 2019

Editor's Notes 20.2

When my children turned twenty-one, I wrote each of them a letter. The content was meant for them only. All three shed tears, as did I. I knew that although my children, two daughters and a son, were still mine and, of course, always would be, they wI knew that although my children, two daughters and a son, were still mine and, of course, always would be, they were entering the world as adults; and forevermore I would have to share them with the world in a way that left me excited and proud, but also anxious and wary. This moment in the life of River Teeth feels a bit like that. In the fall of this year, River Teeth will be twenty years old. We couldn’t wait until it turned twenty-one to write this letter......

The Limits of Ownership, The Vagaries of Possession

Sarah Viren's debut collection explores the concept of ownership. It begins with an essay on the ownership of material goods--the narrator's landlord lends her the furniture that belongs to a man on trial for murder. The essays that follow ask what it means to own one's body, one's family members, one's language, even one's story that is inextricably intertwined with the stories of others....