Since my father’s death in 2013, I’ve learned a lot about grief and writing. I’ve spent late nights reading poetry books and memoirs and early mornings combing over blogs, essays, and academic journals. I have led Death Writing workshops, given a grief talk at Ignite Cardiff, and even changed my PhD topic to better understand how creative writing can impact others bereaved by addiction.

This work has been difficult, confusing, and anxiety-producing but it has also brought rewards and, strangely, a great deal of comfort. It has reminded me, fundamentally, that I am not alone in my losses. And even though I’m still just on the cusp of it all, what I’ve learned so far has changed me.

Given these personal and academic experiences, I’m delighted to have been selected as the guest editor for a new Little Lantern Press anthology centered on the theme of ‘Loss’. Both myself and the Editor in Chief, Lisa Megraw, will be looking for bold, high quality poems that interpret this topic widely: What have you lost? Who have you lost? What does loss mean to you?

Haruki Murakami said “every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”

So we say go: write things, read everything you can get your hands on, share what you’ve read with friends and strangers, be more alive than you’ve ever been. And, if you have a moment, send us some poems too.