Reading the submissions that come in to the Meniscus platform twice a year acts as a sort of weathervane for what writers are observing, thinking and feeling at the time. There are, of course, perennial issues for writers (love; heartbreak; families; sunsets; trees ...) but alongside the standards we see key issues affecting how we writers—and probably other humans too—are responding to current and enduring matters.

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For this first issue of 2026, poets and stories approach ideas of grief, estrangement, ageing, and the fragile work of connection: between parent and child, between partners, between the living and the dead, or between the self and a world that has become unfamiliar. Even when the settings are domestic or ordinary, many of the stories in particular open onto something more unsettling, uncanny, speculative, or darkly comic.

There is also a strong thread that explores, or articulates, contemporary unease: AI, automation, climate anxiety, institutional care, and the changing terms of what it means to be human. Perhaps related to this is the sense of people living at thresholds: between belonging and isolation; between certainty and uncertainty; between care and neglect, human and machine, memory and loss.

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In these works, we see anger, empathy, compassion, determination to enact change; we see a quirky, engaging humour; we see little if any interest in wealth or power, but a great deal of attention to the quotidian, the small, the too-often-overlooked. In short, we see a deeply heartening corner of the human zoo.

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Our gratitude to all who submitted, whether or not we were able to select them for publication. Writing makes the world go round.

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Jen Webb and Ginna Brock​

for the editors