Counterflow
Counterflow is Wordstorm's digital magazine. Published annually.
About Counterflow
Wordstorm’s magazine, Counterflow, is an annual anthology showcasing work by emerging, early career, and established writers, poets, and visual artists from across all of Vancouver Island
and the surrounding Salish Sea Basin.
A counterflow is defined as a vortex, whirlpool, or maelstrom with currents that move in different, unexpected directions. Counterflow, the publication, seeks to create a home and community for written work that explores unexpected directions around the process of writing. Counterflow strives to support the development of new work by emerging and established creators who seek to enliven the adventure of writing through discovering new ways for their work to flow.
Motion. Even in what appears to be stillness, there is a balance of energies entangled in imperceptible movement. From the flow of electrons in atoms, the dance of mitochondria in cells, to the twitch of a bee’s antennae inside a crocus blossom, motion surrounds us.
Movement often marks a beginning. We think you’ll find that this inaugural issue of Counterflows speaks to the many ways in which words can create a sense of that ever-present movement spreading into experience, emotion, and thought. Whether through stories that evoke nostalgia, hope, and sometimes, regret, or poems that offer glimpses into everyday life as well as the darker cervices the mind is wont to flirt with, this issue of Counterflow begins with words that cancel inertia and swirl into a language of what-could-be.
Counterflow was conceived by Wordstorm Society of the Arts as an annual publication to highlight the energies of poets, writers,and visual artists who spin their vocabularies on Vancouver Island and around the Salish Sea Basin. These communities of creatives are boiling over with innovative dynamism and are not simply the rural or semi-rural retreats for the more urbane as often thought. We think you will agree!
We are excited have Heidi Greco as our guest editor and adjudicator for our upcoming issue #3. And, as always, we are grateful to all our contributors for sharing the waves and currents of their unique perceptions.
Carla and Amber
Counterflow Editorial Team