The Monster Mash Hotel

Dear Reader,

Over the last seventeen years The Sanctuary Magazine has been many things—a Museum of Portals, a Death Emporium, an exploration of Divine Anatomy. As leadership is passed from one set of hands to another we change and we grow. The one thing we have always been is a refuge.

The Sanctuary Magazine was formed in the year 2007 with a concern for the lack of speculative fiction in Susquehanna University’s writing community. In 2023 we have moved much closer to acceptance, but still find much difficulty in the publishing sphere.

While we have grown to encompass much more than speculative fiction, we still strive to publish what others won’t—strange pieces, abstract art, odd poetry, surreal scripts, and anything else in need of a home. We search for pieces that, as our founders said, “pound on the cathedral door.”

This edition is one of many revivals and hopefully our last. In an environment where leadership is constantly changing it is difficult to solidify a publishing system. However, our editors at The Sanctuary Magazine have been working very hard to archive and reconstruct ourselves every step of the way—from journeys to the Blough-Weis Library archives to the recreation of style guides and deep dives on the dark web, we have been far and wide.

We hope you enjoy Issue 16! Keep an eye out for future renditions and developments. There is always something in development on the other side of the Letterbox glass.

See you on the other side,

Gabby Grinaway, Head Editor

Editor-In-Chief

Gabby Grinaway

Junior Editor

Emily Hizny

Head Prose Editor

Sarah Ledet

Head Poetry Editor

Haley Dittbrenner

Co-Head Visual Arts Editor

Fiona Selden

Co-Head Visual Arts Editor

Amber Watkin

Design Editor and Public Relations

Kelsey Diven

Junior Design Editor and Public Relations

Lindsay Hirschman

Podcast Editor

Laurel Eve

2023 Candlewick Prize Winner

“Garbagemen Harboring My Organs” - Kaci MoDavis -

___

If I knew heartstrings could

Shatter as easily as a splintered

Windshield, I would have carved

Up the organ before placing it

In the trash. I would have turned

It into a passion project before

Tossing it like a spoiled head of

Lettuce. I could surely pass it off

As an accident, but discarding

It would be my deepest pleasure.

Obviously the garbage man would

Worry some but unless he peels

Away the mint-scented plastic, the

Tragedy would stay hidden away.

This calamity was never his

To bear, only my own.

His theories of the numb woman

Chopping up hearts and leaving

Her sanity on the sidewalk

Would be disproven by the smile

On my welcoming face as he passes

Mid-morning. As if the

Easiest it could be, I’d leave here

And refuse to look back at the home

Where my heartstrings no longer

Dance, no longer sing,

No longer beat.

___

Kaci MoDavis is a junior Creative Writing and Sociology double major, and a member of the Sigma Tau Delta honor society. She often finds herself writing fiction and poetry about troublesome circumstances, and enjoys turning the mundane into a curiosity. Her work has appeared in Apricot Press and the FUSE Moondial publication.

This year's Candlewick Prize was awarded to Kaci MoDavis for her poem "Garbagemen Harboring My Organs." Kaci's powerful use of voice, perspective, and imagery draws the reader into a scene that leaves them awestruck. To follow the words of our mission statement, Kaci's piece "encourages new perspectives of the fantastical and mundane." The moment we read it we knew it would pull readers from their reality to spend time in ours.