Issue 30 (Fall 2023)

Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,
While this issue is focused on “a place called California,” I would like to direct your attention to Santa Barbara. As a first generation college student, I had no knowledge of what to expect as an incoming freshman at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The only certainty of my first year was that I’d remain 220 miles north of the beautiful beach town due to the COVID 19 pandemic. It felt ironic and disappointing that my first year of independence would be spent at home. I found The Catalyst during that time, and I remember wearing old Salinas High School gym sweats and a cable-knit sweater for the camera (Zoom, of course.) almost every day. What a time to be a student! As a creative writer, I was adamant I should find a community for my passion. I was fortunate enough to have found the magazine, in which I submitted to the Fall Issue of 2020. Receiving the acceptance email was the catalyst for my motivation for the remainder of the school year. I found myself second guessing the choice I’d made in attending this school, simply because I didn’t think there were enough opportunities for creative writers like me. The Catalyst proved me wrong. My position as Editor-In-Chief today is a direct result of the best decision I could have made during a time where I felt uninspired and lost.

Our class in ENGL 106CW this quarter was given the incredible opportunity to listen to Cherrie Moraga speak on behalf of California. Her talk was titled, “Imagine This: The Regeneration of Place,” where she discussed marking her footsteps alongside Native ecologies and Chicanx genealogies. Maestra Moraga’s reflections on queer embodied writing of place and out of place inspired this fall issue, allowing the students to gather what they have learned about how to interpret space and a sense of home. Returning to the disorientation of having to spend my first year of college at home, as opposed to Santa Barbara, The Catalyst regenerated ideas of how home can be perceived. I find that all of my security is drawn from my writing, and The Catalyst managed to harbor all of that for me; as both a creative outlet and an awareness that I belonged. My hope is that while you take in the art and writing of our talented students, you recognize that sense of unease about the future of belonging, as well as the blatant love for our beautiful California.

Kiana Perez Granados
Editor-In-Chief

Prose

Poetry

The Team