Amid the national erosion of our cultural institutions, the defunding of public programs for the arts, and the privatization of arts funding, I find myself at the helm of a magazine uniquely positioned to be a standard bearer for inspiration. My hope is that the literature contained in the 2025 Winter Issue of Solstice might prompt its readers to rethink the roadblocks that keep us from understanding others. Throughout this issue I find examples of what is aptly explained by the recently ousted Vice President of the Kennedy Center, Marc Bamuthi Joseph; “The way to turn apathy into empathy is to infuse inspiration as a conversion element.” Bamuthi Joseph asserts that apathy divided by inspiration equals empathy. I agree strongly with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and feel this equation throughout the 2025 Winter Issue of Solstice.
This equation, put another way, can be called “duende”. In the words of Federico García Lorca, duende is “the spirit of the earth…”, the element that travels up through the ground into all of us–one way or another. Put yet another way, inspiration to create is innate to the human condition; however, the beauty of creation is that perception makes our creations different even if our subjects are the same. This, I think, is at the core of diversity and represents its primary importance: the difference in ways of creating, yet the commonality in the need to create.
I hope some part of this issue inspires you to create something. If just a word or sentence helps you leap from apathy into inspiration then we have, together, found empathy. Undoubtedly, there is much to love about this issue of Solstice. From Lea Aschkenas non-fiction “The Almost Friend: On the Inter-Personal Legacy of US-Cuba Relations” to the post postmodernism of Erik Armstrong’s “A Works Cited”. The literature within the 2025 Winter Issue of Solstice is echoing a cultural moment across genres and between authors. A conversation that cannot be muted by our national moment or our differences. My hope is that these pages foster what we need most today: a couple steps in someone else’s shoes.
Sincerely,
Ryan Benjamin Clinesmith Montalvo
Editor-in-Chief
Solstice Literary Magazine
Ryan Clinesmith Montalvo is the author of Epilogue to Paradise, an Andres Montoya Poetry Prize Finalist, 2024 Akron Poetry Prize finalist, and 2024 Longleaf Press Book Prize finalist. Ryan is a MVICW Poet & Author Fellow, a Colrain Manuscript Conference participant, and the winner of the Shandy Hill Essay Contest. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Stone Poetry Quarterly, the Penn Journal of Arts and Sciences, Ibbetson Street Press, and Heavy Feather Review. His thought leadership in the field of education is published by the Bridge, a research journal produced by Wellington College International.
Ryan has served as the editor of various publications, including the Poetry Barn’s Poetry Distillery, the Global Poetry Consortium’s Apprentice and Mentor Journals, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s student run publication the Appian Way.
Before Solstice, Ryan worked as the Assistant Head of School at the Birch Wathen Lenox School and the Project Manager for the Tang Institute at Phillips Academy Andover. Ryan is currently the Vice President of the Board at the Boston Music Project and is a member of the Education Advisory Board at Write the World. He is also the proud founder of four startups in the fields of multimodal art, workforce development, video games, and sustainability.
Ryan holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an M.F.A. in poetry from Hunter College, and a B.F.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College.
