Dear Reader,

‘Where were you born?’ is a lot easier to answer than ‘Where are you from?’—it only requires one answer. But often we embody a blurred and complex relationship with our birthplace: a thorough investment, an indifferent acceptance, a hateful repellence.

How tied are we—must we be—to the land on which we breathed our first? How much do we inherit from our birthplace, and how much does our birthplace determine us?

But birth is more than just the actual act of emerging from our mother’s womb. Do we not also give birth to identities, faces and façades and tongues, and those blasted feelings, as the scenery shifts and the seasons pass?

The pieces in Transect’s debut issue explore the conflicting affairs faced by those who have multiple birthplaces and experience multiple births. From arid, dusty African lands to wintry Finnish forests; from the cobbled streets of Oxford to the rainy coasts of Japan; from transitory frustrations to fleeting drama at airports—be prepared to be transported to lands beyond your imagination.

We suspect you just might begin to question and challenge the (un)defining importance of your very own birth.

Sincerely,

Justin and Ariel
Editors-in-Chief