Chelsea Voulgares lives in the Chicago suburbs and is the editor of the literary journal Lost Balloon. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, The Millions, Passages North, Midwestern Gothic, and elsewhere. You can find her online at www.chelseavoulgares.com.
Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s debut novel Glassworks (Bloomsbury Publishing, May 2023) follows one family through four generations. The story begins in 1910 with the wealthy young philanthropist Agnes Carter, and then follows…
I wanted to be able to frame the story within this understanding that these are powerful forces and that these are stories we’ve heard a lot before, and that these stories get in the way of, or make it hard to understand or even listen to, a more authentic or more real story about who people are or can be.
. . . for me, a true ally makes me feel safe by actually hearing me out, by not dismissing my experiences or immediately jumping to the defense of the other party. Such an ally admits their limitations while also holding themselves accountable.