Issue 8, Fall 2023

It’s our absolute delight to introduce you all to our eighth issue of Floodwall, the student-run literary magazine at the University of North Dakota. This semester has brought forth its own round of challenges, but just like its namesake, Floodwall withstands the trials of time. Floodwall continues to stand as a beacon of opportunity and hope for our creative community. As time passes by and students and their creative work enter this community, their work develops in ways that reflect, represent, and impact the communities and world around them. Art is an act of defiance and protest, and it is Floodwall’s privilege to have held space for that art since its revival in spring 2020.

Floodwall’s role—and this has been true since our revival—is to provide a home for the stories of our community. Truly, Floodwall represents the protection and preservation of the hopes, beliefs, challenges, and resistance of the creative community here at UND, just as the flood wall represents those of the communities affected by the 1997 Red River flood. For hope to survive, communities must band together and resist adversity. That’s exactly what Floodwall intends to do.

As the fall semester comes to a close, we couldn’t be more excited for you to spend time curled up with this issue. The cover portrays a portion of Lillian Quinn’s graphic poem “The Guilty The Innocent,” which paints a poignant picture of gender expectations and their impact on the development of generations of women and girls. As you dive in, you’ll find pieces exploring the world through our eyes: all of the terrifying, heartbreaking, introspective, and beautiful parts of it. The importance of community, unwinding, and bliss. Portfolios of art and photography that present beauty as both something inherent and something to be created and shared. Indigenous history and culture living on in the present, through story. Analyses of the mirrored interactions between men, society, race, violence, and education in a world that needs intersectionality more than ever.

It’s our immense honor and privilege to provide a safe haven for our contributors’ creative work, expression, and artistic defiance. We’re so incredibly thankful for their trust and for the hard work of our volunteers who made this absolute dream a reality. And thank you, dear reader, for meeting us here in this moment and holding space for us. We couldn’t do what we do without the support of you all. We hope you enjoy.

While you're here, we hope that you’ll take a look at the masthead for this issue. There, you will find the names of our volunteer readers, copyeditors, layout and design workers, and proofreaders. It truly does take a village, and we owe it all to our village of volunteers.

For offline reading, download the complete PDF of this fall's issue of Floodwall.