Voices: The Second Movement

Tapping out a rhythm and finding a little door onto the mysterious

In the debut issue of Heavy Crown Voices, there was experimentation. We were throwing darts at the board to see what would stick. We had ample material from incredible writers to showcase. But every poem, every story, needs the right shape. Every artwork needs the right light, the kind that lets its contours reveal meaning.

If I could do the debut issue again, I would reduce the volume. Everything else, I would keep: the jagged edges, the uneven pulse, the general tempo. I would simply lower the volume. It’s still possible that our prototype may be reorganized in a future issue.

The Second Movement introduces the new annual frequency, instead of biannual. There are so many great literary magazines out there. Most of them land like pin drops. Heavy Crown Voices is too new and too independent to know quite where it sits in the genre. For now it’s happy to soak up a little more sunlight and experience new shades.

The issue features three poets: Joshua Walker, Colin James, and Noah Berlatsky. It pays homage to a French artist with a Louisiana connection: Odilon Redon. Redon’s artwork sits in harmony with Walker’s grief, where James waits for Zephyr’s Kiss, and under Berlatsky’s “wings of anesthetized trauma.” I added to the chorus my own essay about a woman in the light who holds multitudes. The issue concludes with a translation of Redon’s Confidences of an Artist. I’ve only translated a selection from this work. The French original is available via the Internet Archive and Open Library.

You can view the new issue of Heavy Crown Voices here.

We’ve also put together a main page where the issues will be collected in one place.