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8/26/22
Dearest Snaggleteeth (new term I’m coining to refer to Snaggletooth readers),
Salutations and welcome to BACK TO SCHOOL. This issue was borne from an idea by Lucy Sherman, who texted me in July asking if Snaggletooth would publish a back-to-school shopping list. The past few years, I’ve found myself frustrated at the amount of time it takes to start working on the magazine again once school begins, but this is the perfect segue back into the swing of things. Not to mention it gets people excited about their peers’ written and creative work, and working on it kept me sane after my job ended this summer! It also served as a nice prelude to my creative thesis. Everyone wins.
This issue is full to bursting, and I have so many people I need to thank. Thank you to my coeditors Keira, Liya and Isabel for volunteering their time during the summer to help me read through the submissions for this issue, and special thanks to Keira for her help on edits. Thank you Lucy for the initial idea that snowballed into this project. Thank you to each contributor, of course, but particularly to those who don’t attend Bates. This is our first issue with submissions opened up to the larger community, and it was a great decision—there’s so much incredible stuff in here from outside contributors. I’m excited to see Snaggletooth grow and receive more external submissions. Also, shoutout to Aratrika Ghosh. Aratrika is a member of the Bates class of 2026, and I’m really excited to have creative work in here from the incoming freshman class. And thank you to Lucy Hagge, whose gorgeous photography serves as a thread to jell the issue together and tell a story of its own.
Special thanks to Kaylee and Emily, whose work I solicited for this issue. Emily and I have been friends for around ten years now. We met on the Internet as kids (RIP Google Buzz) and eventually ran a Tumblr poetry blog together, among other things. Emily’s poem “September” was written when she was a young teenager. Fourteen at the oldest, fifteen’s pushing it. I was floored when I read it then and repeated it to myself so many times over the years that I committed it to memory; I’m just as awed by it now. I’ve always struggled with rhyming, and “September” does it perfectly. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for—having worked with them for the past two months, I’ve been completely immersed in their world, and this poem encapsulates the magic and heartbreak of childhood friendship so well. This poem is very special to me, and I’m so glad it’s finally out in the world after so many years of bouncing around my head. About Kaylee’s poem: “Second Date” was in the same issue of The Lumiere Review as my poem “Rhythm 0,” and when I read it, I fell in love. When I decided to make a back-to-school-themed Snaggletooth issue, I knew I had to ask Kaylee if I could republish her poem. I won’t spoil it for you, but there are so many lines that will knock the wind from your chest.
I feel like the bar for Snaggletooth is constantly getting higher. And that’s a good thing! There are so many things we want to do this year. Picnics, workshops, readings, you name it. There will be countless opportunities to get involved once the school year begins, so stay tuned!
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this issue of Snaggletooth. It’s been a labor of love and I’m so proud of how it turned out.
xo
Maria Gray
EIC, Snaggletooth Magazine