Aster Lit: Anemoia
Issue 2—Summer 2021
Starlit Awards in Poetry and Prose
Each issue, we’d like to specially recognize submissions that the editors of Aster Lit found outstanding either in mastery of craft or in originality of voice. This issue, both the winners of the Starlit Award in Poetry and the Starlit Award in Prose were awarded $100. The Starlit Award Winners for Summer 2021 are Tashfia Ahmed and Michelle Mo. Honorable mentions were awarded to Christina Li and Akshat Khare.
Scroll down to read the rest of the Spring 2021 Issue.
Michelle Mo—Poetry
Starlit Award Winner
Akshat Khare—Poetry
Honorable Mention
Tashfia Ahmed—Prose
Starlit Award Winner
Christina Li—Prose
Honorable Mention
anemoia
n.
nostalgia for a time you’ve never known
Theme Winners
To celebrate our first themed issue, we’d also like to recognize two theme winners—one for poetry and one for prose—who we believed demonstrated thoughtful and creative engagement with our theme alongside sophisticated use of their craft to tell a compelling and unique story. The theme winners for our Summer 2021 Issue are Kayleigh Sim and Vivian Zhu.
Read more about the theme here.
Kayleigh Sim—Poetry
Vivian Zhu—Prose
Poetry
Themed Poetry
AGNA — I question Ammi in Gaza, where do we belong?
Ajay Sawant — A Summer Dream
Akshat Khare — The View — From the Tongue of an Experienced Simpleton
Anik Khan — For You
Avril Black — In Africa the Sun
Jordan Davidson — A Prayer for Earth
Kayleigh Sim — the eternalist's garden
Michelle Mo — ad lib(erationem) — the future / in our memories
Muhammad Zakariya Ibrahim — Anemoia
Oliver Smith — Sing her name — Drawing #5: Existing in abstract- a child’s lens
Ravajra Gimel Lagutan — Unsent Thanks
Riva Ingente — Slipping
Ruth Thomas — Restaurant Fruit Cup
Saba Khaliq — My Mother's Handwriting
Sadhbh Goodwin — Embed
Sanaa Mirz — A time never mine
Seokyung Alfinda — a smitten undertaker’s diary excerpt
Toluwalogo Niji-Olawepo — Twenty-three Stars
Unthemed Poetry
Bidisha P. Kashyap — hours (ft. you) - a slow death
Shannia Bernal — Ode to the Metro Sunset
Alyssa Ubaldo — Summer
Ariana KM — Ever Since Forever
Prose
Themed Prose
Natalie Chan — Your Eyes, Honey-gold and Charcoal
Tashfia Ahmed — Good Times
Vivian Zhu — Confessions at Tiananmen Square
Unthemed Prose
Christina Li — Moonflower
Kelley Kwok — The Box
Note from the Editors
It’s been a year (so soon!) since the Aster Lit Team first met online during Between the Lines, a writing program, back when the COVID-19 pandemic had just taken it’s first foothold. No one knew what to expect, but our dreams of meeting each other in Iowa City were rendered obsolete. Even now, a mere year later, many of us on the Aster Lit team are already nostalgic for the time we spent together last summer, nostalgic for an Iowa City we could wander to replace the Zoom that the pandemic forced us on, nostalgic for something, a time, that we had never known.
We received over two hundred amazing submissions from around the world for this issue—some about anemoia and some not. This magazine is for all of you—those who submitted, those who view our Instagram page and interact with our polls or our posts, those of you who have supported us on our journey. We want to offer our gratitude to everyone who made this possible, and a special thanks to you—the readers—for your support. We hope you enjoy the constellation of voices we’ve gathered in this issue regardless of if you read just one poem or all of the pieces. Whether it be a special bloom in the midst of a flower field or a lone star in the night sky, we hope the true gems we’ve gathered in this issue take you on a breathtaking journey just as it did us here at Aster Lit.
If you work wasn’t published, don’t worry! Submissions for our Fall 2021 Issue open July 1st, and we’d love to read more of your amazing writing. Follow us on Instagram @aster.lit for updates on submissions for our Fall 2021 Issue or just to stay involved with this amazing community!
We love you. Your voice matters. Keep telling stories.
Sincerely,
The Aster Lit Team