It’s strange to think back and reflect on how I’ve come to know Tomás Q. Morín, Wendy S. Walters, and Dionne Irving. It feels as if I’ve never not known them. They’ve certainly influenced me deeply as friends and fellow artists. Because of that, I knew that each would bring a particular twist, an insight into our current state of being—the way that our very perception of the moment has been warped, has frayed at the edges, but is also reshaping itself into something particularly beautiful and unique. It’s such a pleasure to be able to feature the work by such powerful, and important, voices here at West Branch.
Hasanthika Sirisena’s short story collection The Other One won the Juniper Prize for Fiction and was released in 2016. Her essay collection Dark Tourist won the Gournay Prize and is forthcoming in 2021from The Ohio State University Press/Mad Creek Books.