Our February collection features a range of wonderful pieces from a talented group of contributors. Despite the diversity in genre and form, it’s impossible to ignore the emphasis on human connection, exploring what it means to face loneliness. Through these stories, we are launched from earth into space and dragged back down again. After our travels, we arrive back in a place that feels the same, yet changed.

The machine needs us, not the other way around.

The baby of me going out like a light—

sisters’ hands caught mid-gesture

in sharp flight between words

“I know you’ve got to ask it,” he said, interrupting her. Again, he felt like his mouth was moving without his control. He hadn’t talked this openly in years.

You can choose a place. If you do, it will love you and not stop loving you even if you leave. I am telling you this is possible.