Letter from the Editor

I know, I know. You’re sick of talking about AI. You’re sick of hearing about data centers and water supply, about whether or not it’s stealing jobs and which ones, and could it be yours? Maybe you’re sick of people bickering about acceptable uses of AI. Where do we draw the line? Grocery lists, yes? Poetry, no? Book Riot recently ran a survey of readers, which I participated in, to ask their views about acceptable uses of AI in writing. Would it be ok with you to read a book if you knew that AI was used in the research process, they asked? To come up with an idea? To help with editing, but not with writing? No surprise: opinions were divided. 

In the literary community, new AI “scandals” seem to pop up about every week, and I won’t rehash them here. But context matters. Part of the reason I think we’re seeing a massive backlash to AI in the literary world is because the arts are under assault in America in our current cultural and political climate. Our administration wants control of our arts centers, as evidenced by the president’s overhaul of the Kennedy Center. They want to dictate the politics and aims of National Endowment for the Arts projects. They want to arrange and shape the curation of our museums and school curricula.

I grew up in the era of Tipper Gore advocating for “Explicit Content” labels on music and Senator Jesse Helms insisting that public funds not be used on artworks that were “morally objectionable” (Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs celebrating gay sexuality, for example) or that courted religious controversy. I remember these newsmakers from my teen years so well because they stood out. Now, they’re in power everywhere at every level. 

That’s why, even if you’re sick of hearing and talking about AI, you can’t stop making noise about its use in art, especially if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of writing that’s machine-produced, environmentally destructive, built on the theft of other artists, and designed to make money for the 1% on the backs of some of the least well-compensated professionals in this country. (The most recent income survey by the Author’s Guild in 2023 showed that “the median author income for full-time authors from their books was $10,000.” In other words, half of all full-time authors earn less than the federal minimum wage.) Art and artists have value, and they also have magic and heart and humanity, the last three of which AI will never replicate.

I hope you enjoy this summer’s selection of gloriously human poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and comics.

Colleen Abel, August 2026