Love Before: Love After

The face of love changes over the years. Just look in the mirror: What relation does that face staring so intently back at you have to do with the one that you were born with? Just look across the table: What relationship do the feelings you have toward that accomplished, harassed mother feeding broccoli to a recalcitrant two-year old have with those you had toward the morose teenager you simultaneously adored and deplored two decades ago? What do the feelings you have toward that face creased with age, eyes magnified by reading glasses, which regards you so curiously over an open book have to do with those you felt for the man or woman you married? The face of love changes with time and circumstance—and so does its essence. It can become richer, more contentious, mysterious, fragile, elastic, contingent, raw, or habitual—none of which means it is any less true or less deserving of the name. We invite submissions of poetry, fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction for an anthology that explores what changes and what remains the same in our affection for each other as we go through life's great changes. What is love like before and after adolescence, adulthood, professional success or failure, illness, marriage, betrayal, divorce, parenthood, bereavement, large and small dislocations in place, culture, or belief?

Country of Publication

United States