Togetherness is a fierce weapon. All around the world, people are writing to save their lives and to save the lives of others. This has always been true, but it becomes ever more essential.

What does it mean to resist? One definition says, "to withstand, strive against, or oppose." Another definition simply says, "be proof against." These writers come together to be the proof.

As long as you are speaking your truth, you are surviving something. Resistance can be advocacy, sharing resources, talking, asking, listening, showing up, providing mutual aid. Resistance can also be sharing meals, holding your friend's hand, taking care of yourself, being abundantly queer, being unapologetically yourself, or writing about a feeling that someone else is afraid to feel.

What are you resisting with your existence? Who do you prove wrong, by having your courageous power to survive?

In this collection, we contemplate what it means to take up space, to resist, and to question what the world wants us to be. We break molds. No one gets left behind.

This is what happens when one continues to survive. - Angel Rosen, winner of the 2025 Maureen Seaton Poetry Prize

*Cover art by Chrissy Carlson