Dear Reader,

Two years in gestation, and the tiger has finally arrived! I proudly present, after all this patience and hard work: Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine.

Despite the length of time it took from my desire to launch a literary magazine, to soliciting and sifting through worldwide submissions, to curating the pieces in tandem with the team I chose, to the branding and design itself of the debut issue, this is a magazine born with an urgency. We have been witnessing and experiencing remarkably dark times in the last several years—on several compounding fronts, more so than many are willing to confront—and in reaction, it became imperative to me that I inject some light, hope, and healing into the world in the only way I know how: by means of artistic expression.

Sabr (صبر) is the Arabic word for patience, steadfastness, perseverance; a concept deriving from Islam characterized not by idle, passive waiting, but by active resilience in hardships, refraining from despair, and maintaining trust in your heart that your life is indeed meaningful and everything will turn out alright, no matter the Sisyphean effort it may take. The prehistoric saber-toothed tiger once having thrived on Earth for 17 million years went extinct due to climate change and increased human activity at the end of the last Ice Age, according to our scientific understanding, but nevertheless remains a known symbol of strength, power, and focus. This profound pun is thus out of which Sabr Tooth Tiger was named (I was initially going to call the magazine Two-Headed Charley Horse—a riff on Laura Gilpin’s poem “Two-Headed Calf”—but I opted for something less irreverent and more enduring).

Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine is a communal endeavor, made possible for me to spearhead only with the incredible contributions and support of dozens of brilliantly talented people all over the world, from Illinois to Ireland to Indonesia. I cannot express my gratitude strongly enough for both the contributors of writing and art and for the team that helped me curate this debut issue. Dear reader, I sincerely hope you find the work as affecting as I did putting it together. My wish for the magazine is that it be a salve for the mind, body, and soul—that it inspires all to adore the blessing it is to be alive, no matter what comes your way, and persevere, persevere, persevere.

With love and gratitude,