Hello darlings,

Welcome to our first issue. 

We started planning Don’t Read Books last spring while sitting out back. No one knows where the idea flew in from, but it was fervently alive as soon as it landed. 

It showed up with a desperation of something we were worried we might forget (which we have since forgotten).

By June we were studying vintage Cosmopolitans, reading Lydia Davis, and listening to audios of Chekhov. In July, our kitchen and office spaces mixed with unforgiving heat and nostalgias—Shania Twain, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Holiday, The Beatles.

The Van Gogh book was revisited, Egon Schiele and Man Ray were googled. Gnostic texts were read, and reread (and reread). There were people who knew about these things—art and words—and if only we could capture a little bit of what they knew...we ate rice—we ate xorta. We savored fresh figs, and watermelon. We swam, and we dripped in the Greek humidity. Finally, we did turn on the air conditioner. 

We’ve taken these summer moments—the tears, the hope, the inspirations—and we’ve poured them into our fall issue. An issue that is so full of life.

C’est la vie

Many thanks, everyone (always and forever). Many thanks to the hundreds of submissions that poured in—thank you for trusting us with your work. One million hugs to you all. 

Naste Kala.

Sophia Wolfe, Editor-in-Chief

Dedicated to the love of my life, jimmy