Dear Readers,

Welcome to the ninth issue of Mason’s Road: A Literary & Arts Journal! The journal started almost five years ago with the unique charter of being a literary publication with an educational twist, and over the past few volumes, we’ve been proud to curate and publish a truly astonishing array of talent across multiple disciplines, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, and craft essays. For each issue, we have chosen an overall theme to help us align the collective narrative of the pieces we select, and for this our ninth issue, we were surprised and delighted by the breadth of interpretation inspired by the elusive theme of Truth.

The Truth, it says in the Bible, shall set you free. Literature is often an escape, both for the writer and the reader, but that does not mean that literature cannot, or should not, ring true. Literature has been obsessed with the Truth for centuries. We expect fictional characters to be believable. We hold memoirists to a certain standard of honesty, and we delight when poetry can help unlock the truths of the universe. We are constantly seeking the Truth, but can we truly handle it? Can we even define it? Perhaps the one truth about the Truth that our editors have learned from the unique and engaging ways in which our contributors interpreted and approached the Truth is that it shifts according to the individual. In Literature, after all, the Truth is only what we write it to be, or as Carlos Ruiz Zafón succinctly puts it: “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”

This is the fourth issue of Mason’s Road I’ve worked on, having co-edited Creative Nonfiction for the past three. The opportunity to work on a literary journal while at the same time studying to be a better writer has been phenomenal. Above all, my work as Editor-in-Chief for this issue has shown me that putting a quality journal together is not a one-person job; it requires a concerted effort and persistent dedication from a team of committed editors, production managers, and readers. We happen to have the very best of all three here at Mason’s Road—and that’s the truth.

It’s been my distinct pleasure to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Mason’s Road, and it is with more than a little pride that I welcome you to the digital pages of our ninth issue.

Enjoy!

Colin Hosten

Editor-in-Chief

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Colin Hosten can totally handle the truth; he just doesn’t want to. A recent graduate of the Creative Writing MFA program at Fairfield University, Colin is currently completing a collection of essays about falling in love. His work has appeared most recently in OUT Magazine. He will begin teaching in the Core Writing program at Fairfield University this fall. Originally from Trinidad, he now lives in Connecticut with his husband and their puppy, Bugsy.

 

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