Letter from the Editor
WELCOME to the fifth issue of Exchange, a literary magazine of poems, essays, stories, and artwork exclusively by individuals who have faced or are facing imprisonment.
Exchange is a part of the Incarcerated Writers Initiative, an effort launched in 2016 to open the gates of academia and publishing to a historically overlooked community of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated creators. As we are an experimental journal, we welcome all genres of writing. It is our pleasure and privilege to be able to engage with every work we receive, published or not. Every submission to IWI/Exchange is responded to with a letter of feedback and considered for publication in both Exchange and the Columbia Journal.
This year’s issue of Exchange investigates the significance of nature in incarceration and rehabilitation. From clearing weeds on hoe squad to adopting the perspective of a tree, the writing and artwork featured here grapples with the denial and subsequent reclamation of nature and the imprisoned self. Join our exploration of works detailing the rediscovery of hope through community, the restricted view of a prison window, and a man’s loss of sight.
As one featured author states, “I am (freedom confined) defiantly growing.” Like a flowing river, the works in this issue erode prison systems’ ideas of rehabilitation to forge their own streams of thinking about the self. I encourage you to follow suit—drift through these pages, take unexpected turns, and arrive in uncharted waters.
Haley Glover
Editor-in-Chief, Exchange
Managing Staff
Editor-in-Chief
Haley Glover
Art Directors
Jackie Dinovitz
Micah Pava
Correspondence Team
Haley Garvin
Tracy Shi
Outreach Manager
Charlene Huang
Director of IWI
Jessica Sun
Nonfiction Editors
Donna Dinovitz
Lilly Sabella
Fiction Editors
Stella Lemper-Tabatsky
Jennifer Ries
Poetry Editors
Jackie Dinovitz
Lindsey Siferd
Editorial Board
Diana Athena, Donna Dinovitz, Jackie Dinovitz, Haley Garvin, Maria Isabella Hernandez, Valentina Jaramillo, Anabelle Larson, Stella Lemper-Tabatsky, Oana Nicola, Sammi Minion, Ananya Iyer Pandya, Micah Pava, Jennifer Ries, Lilly Sabella, Lindsey Siferd, Hannah Maree Wederquist-Keller
And a special thank you to Keri Bertino and her Writer as Teacher class.