Welcome to our ongoing series exploring isolation, exile, and “The Everyday Pandemic.” Throughout this series it is our hope to capture the daily toll of life through the pandemic from the perspective of writers and artists who are familiar with the experience of isolation or exile. With this in mind we’ve collected stories, poems, nonfiction essays, and digital art from writers and artists from all walks of life and from all around the globe. The series is co-sponsored by City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of English, and the Global Studies Center — and made possible by Pitt’s Engaged Scholarship Design Fellowship.

The Last Mission

Moniro Ravanipour

November 15, 2022

Illustration by Izumi Miyazaki The eighty-year-old priest Mario waited alone for Marcus in the Windmill Church. It was the second month that the city had been shut down because of COVID, and all the churches were closed. Mario sighed loudly and looked out the window at Wigwam Street. Neither this ...
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Poetry by Edward Salem

October 27, 2022

Living in the Promise of the Future I was a futurist, imagining utopian life ahead. Now here I am, I’m halfway dead. I thought scientists would defeat death. Yet here I am, ripping bread with my teeth. In forty years, we won’t need teeth. I’ll be eighty then, close to ...
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Two Poems by Vyarka Kozareva

October 26, 2022

DIMENSIONS You can’t know for sure When hope really dies Or if it dies last But only feel That it defers its big plans For an undefined future. And because This future itself Is also in the future Your fingers have learned How to sift every scrap of coincidence Then ...
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Symphony in Wellness: Q&A with Raychelle Heath

Daishon Spann

October 13, 2022

The multidimensional writer shares her journey of self-discovery and holistic health. Photo by Venice Williams. Raychelle Heath is a true polymath: she's a writer and a poet; a podcaster and visual artist; a translator and a teacher; and a yogi and meditation instructor. When she is not writing, you can ...
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On Exiting: Assumptions, Presumptions

Simten Coşar

October 11, 2022

"Where does the home start? Where does it end?" The author explores the notion of exile, home, and (non)belongingness. Illustration by Waad Aljurayyad Nomads are free; exiles are not. So why not claim nomad/hood? For most of my life, I never pictured myself as a settled person. Instead, I romanticized ...
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