If we are all the dead conversing with the dead, I like to think the language we use to bridge the space between us is called music.

The Elegy Letters (A Selection)

My work as a writer is aimed at truth which, like a song, cannot be contained.

Music, Selections, LiteratureTopaz WintersJuly 25, 2022beebadoobee, Carolyn Forche, Larry Levis, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, AC/DC, love letters

Songs for the Elegy Issue (A Selection)

A series of songs chosen by Issue X’s contributors, a mix to light up all that desperate quiet & sing the grief alive.

X: Elegy | Silver-Tipped Swallow: "Debt Collector's Lullaby"

When reporters ask for the secret, you are good at hedging: hard work is a sweet way to say obsession. Pathology is prettier when masked in music.

Columns, Literature, Music, Personal EssayTopaz WintersJuly 17, 2022silver-tipped swallow

Preorders are Open for Issue X: Elegy

In this issue we look back on the years stolen or borrowed, hold our grief open & stand very still in the strain of song that washes from its depths.

Announcements, MusicTopaz WintersJune 18, 2022Philip Schaefer, Gavin Yuan Gao, Meg Reynolds, Anthony Thomas Lombardi, Katrinka Moore, Paola Bennet, Geoff Anderson, Esther Kim, Emma Chan, Esther Sun, Tori Grant Wellhouse, Taylor Gianfrancisco, Abby E. Murray, Laura Mei Roghaar, Maria Chiara Piglione

From the Editor, & the Launch of Hazem Fahmy's Waiting for Frank Ocean in Cairo

This collection was born out of the search for something bigger than the silence & static. On Friday, I think we came close to finding it.

Music, Literature, Gatherings, From the EditorTopaz WintersMarch 20, 2022Hazem Fahmy, Danie Shokoohi, Ray Scheinman, Darnell “DeeSoul” Carson, Anthony Thomas Lombardi, Ohio Martinez, Elijah Mann

Introducing Waiting for Frank Ocean in Cairo

Take off your headphones, put down your hauntings, & come inside out of the heat. We’ve been waiting for so long.

Topaz WintersFebruary 6, 2022Frank Ocean, Hazem Fahmy, Hanif Abdurraqib, Shayla Lawson, Sara Elkamel

Introducing Elegy

Welcome to elegy: the last dropped petal—the mirror in mourning—the light still on for what once was beautiful.

Music, AnnouncementsTopaz WintersAugust 6, 2021

From the Editor: The Synaesthesia Issue

I am slow to reach for music these days, maybe because music doesn’t feel out of reach anymore.

From the Editor, Announcements, MusicTopaz WintersJuly 28, 2021

The Synaesthesia Letters (A Selection)

When a poem reaches its most potent limits, I consider it reaching into the state of song.

Music, Selections, LiteratureTopaz WintersJuly 26, 2021Wislawa Szymborska, love letters, Gustav Mahler, Igor Levit, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lyle Lovett, Elvis Costello, the Smiths, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Failure