Preorders are Open for Opus II, Issue II: Sevdah
A damask veil. A clipped swan’s wing. A memory of a late-night lake with a long-gone lover, when the sky & water turned the same colour & met at the edge of the world. Welcome to Half Mystic Journal Opus II, Issue II: Sevdah.
The twelfth issue of Half Mystic Journal—the shadow-self of Issue II’s saudade theme—exalts in its own unquenchable yearning. A genre of Turkish & Bosnian folk music evoking ecstatic, sorrowful love, sevdah derives from the Arabic sawda, meaning “black bile,” or a melancholy state of longing. With a pulse of sage & velvet, this collection unfolds into a liturgy beneath half lights, holy & heavy as the still before the train comes.
Issue XII features the voices of Adam Falkner, Rita Mookerjee, Natalie Marino, Kathleen A. Wakefield, Angela Sucich, Jordan Silversmith, Jared Povanda, Lee Anderson, Sophie Crocker, Dontay M. Givens II, Nick Visconti, Amber Cecile Brodie, Sjafril, & more. It releases on July 8th, & paperback & PDF copies are available for preorder today.
Submissions for Opus II, Issue II are now closed, & all decisions will be sent to authors within the next week. Sit tight for the full contributor line-up announcement—& thank you as always, songbirds, for trusting our team to hold your work up to the light.
This July marks 10 years since Half Mystic’s founding, & we’re beyond excited to unveil more details on our in-person celebration soon. Until then, you can follow along with our journey online or catch up on our back catalog. Meanwhile, subscriptions to Half Mystic Journal start at $16, & our publications ship everywhere for free with an order of $60 or more. If you’d rather immediately grasp an issue with both hands, we don’t blame you! Find us in a brick-&-mortar store near you, or request that your favorite local library or independent bookstore carry our publications. We adore connecting with readers on & offline, & are fathomlessly grateful for your support over the years & as we unmask the latest issue of Half Mystic Journal.
In the mythic yawn between absence & presence, Opus II, Issue II wanders an empty airport terminal like centre stage. Tenderness blossoms fragile and fragrant here, coiled around the thorn of desire. The sevdah issue breathes at once as song and spell: a vow made in a past world, a memory yet to be lived, chords drinking down silence and lingering long after the ghosts have gone.