When I chose the theme Voltage for our second issue, I wasn’t considering a single definition. I was thinking about a feeling: one of those sensations that’s hard to pin down but is instantly recognizable. A moment that carries tension, movement, or possibility, even if you can’t fully explain why. I wanted an issue that could hold all the different ways that feeling shows up in people’s lives.
What we received for this issue blew me away.
Voltage brings together writers from middle school all the way to writers with decades of experience, and the range is extraordinary. The pieces shift in tone, age, perspective, and form, yet they still feel connected. Not because they match, but because each one brings something genuine and necessary to the table.
This issue is also a reminder of something simple but important: none of this exists without people who choose to make things. Navy Pen only works because people, busy people, young people, older people, people in wildly different stages of life, sit down and write. They turn small memories, private thoughts, wild ideas, and uncertain moments into something shareable.
Voltage is a celebration of that choice. A reminder that literary magazines only exist because people keep making art, and trusting someone out there will read it.
I’m so proud of what we’ve created here. I’m even more grateful for everyone who continues to bring their spark to this space.
— Henry Fisher, Editor-in-Chief, Navy Pen
Navy Pen 